


One Last Time

by fairytalehearts



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:27:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7918675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalehearts/pseuds/fairytalehearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The First Time, everything goes great, The Second Time, Vandal Savage tries to destroy everything and the Third Time has Felicity from 2024 on an adventure through time. Finding her way back to Oliver takes a little help from her grandson, Rip Hunter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. December 2051 (The First Time)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic involves time travel and alternate universes, which can be confusing. I've tried to break it up as best I can so please pay attention to the chapter titles/dates. :)

                                         

 

Felicity thought getting the whole family together would be a problem. Her children were very busy individuals, her grandchildren were busy with school, but all of them dropped everything when she asked and for the first time in ten years, the whole family was home for Hanukkah.

But the mansion was full of people and laughter and, breathing through her nose, she did her best not to cry.  Sometimes, the feeling of loss was crippling.  Her mother had lived a long, beautiful life. But Hanukkah was always hard without her and she- needed her mom sometimes.

Stepping into the study to catch her breath, she stopped short, seeing Robert sunk into one of the armchairs, trying to hide in the cushions.

“Robbie, honey, what are you doing in here? They’re celebrating downstairs.”

“Sulking. Queen Family tradition.” Rob replied, “Did you ever feel like you didn’t belong in your own family?”

Robert Thomas Queen was at that awkward age where nothing felt right. She supposed it didn’t help that he was the only one to inherit red hair and was too gangly for his own good. He had tested well on the cognition tests, though, and once he finished basic school, he’d be off to some accelerated program she couldn’t pronounce.

Felicity sat down in the chair next to him, and squeezed his hand, “Honey, you’re a Queen. We’re like the mob- everyone belongs.”

“Tell that to Senor Dickwad.”

Her daughter had not made the best decisions when it came to men, but she loved them with all of her heart.  Robert’s father had never been in his life and that was something she knew first hand to be hard. Two marriages and three kids later, Artemis had finally gotten to a good place. Her new husband was kind and considerate and- good to her. Which was strange considering he and Robbie did not get along in the least.

“Senor Dickwad tries. It’s hard being the oldest. You raised your sisters and you really don’t need a Dad right now. That wasn’t fair to you, but can’t hold that against your siblings.” Felicity pointed out softly. Focusing on someone else’s problems was easier than trying to explain her own away.

“Grand Oliver did a good job raising us all right.” Rob muttered weakly. Oliver had been more than happy to help out with their daughter’s kids after hanging up the hood. And maybe Felicity and Oliver had had their own part in biasing Rob against his mother’s boyfriends, but they were family now and they took that seriously. Despite the fact that Robbie lived at the Queen Estate with them and not in Gotham with his mother, family was important, especially around the holidays. And he could suck it up for a few days until they went back home.

“Yes, he did. And Dickwad didn’t say he didn’t. He wants to take care of your siblings and your mother, and you can’t hate a guy for that.”

Rob nodded once. “I just wish I knew that my dad was, you know, out there. Being a superhero or a lawyer or something. Not just- gone.”

“The best thing he did was you. And not knowing your father can be hard, but you’re also part Smoak and we’re social creatures. Now come rejoin the party and maybe Grand Oliver will tell some stories about your mother when she was your age.”

Rob got up out of the chair and Felicity pulled him close, even if selfies were out of style, she snapped a picture with her watch and had Gideon email it to him.

“Grand Felicity, why were you up here alone?” Rob finally asked holding the door to the library open for her to exit.

Felicity had hoped that he hadn’t notice that particular part. Rob held her arm on the way down the staircase.  Downstairs, there were at least three kids sleeping on Oliver’s legs while he chatted with their children about the future of the company.

“Sometimes, around the holidays, I miss my Mom,” Felicity finally confessed.  “When I was your age I felt pretty left out too. I didn’t think I’d ever have a house full of grandkids, plus or minus some Diggles and Lances.  My mom was all I had.”

Oliver’s gaze met her own and he gave her a guilty look.  She had told him for years that he had to take it easy on his knee. His blues eyes twinkled with love, but he really shouldn’t be sitting on the floor.

“You’re getting to old to sit on the floor, Oliver.” She reminded him gently as Rob brought her to her sitting chair.

He glanced to the youngest, Oliver Jonas Queen the Second, who had curled up near his Grandfather’s knee. He was two and half.

“I couldn’t move him. He’s _sleeping_.”

“Babies sleep all the time.” Felicity countered. She would know.

“Ollie’s not a baby anymore,” Meghan pointed out from the floor, her head on Oliver’s opposite leg. She was the spitting image of Thea. It was a testament to Queen genetics that none of her children or her children’s children resembled her in the slightest. Her three kids all looked like they had been plucked off the Queen Family Tree, dark haired beauties with Moira’s pursed lips and Thea’s easy smile.

William was washing dishes with his wife, Cece was picking up the wrapping paper scraps and Artemis and Dickwad were in Oliver’s chair cuddling. Felicity made a mental note to stop calling her newest son-in-law Dickwad, but she was old. She could get away with it.

The menorah was lit, the sleeping situation was figured out and before she could even say jinx, the familiar sound of a Waverider de-cloaking on the main lawn.

She knew the sound well since she helped develop them.

The front door whipped open and Sara Lance appeared in all of her White Canary glory, accompanied by Ray and a few new faces. New faces meant new losses, but some things stayed the same: Sara, Leonard and Ray were always there. Sara didn’t even bother with introductions, she doubted she would see them again and Lenny would have done his due diligence in mission prep.

Felicity put her hands on her hips. “Are you visiting or kidnapping or need my help?”

“Why can’t it be all three?” Sara smiled, leaning down to hug her.

“Because you are much too young and unwrinkled to be visiting me for the holidays,” Felicity countered, hoping her “serious face” was severe enough. “Although Old You isn’t that wrinkly either, damn Lazarus Pit.”

“-John Andrew Diggle put the damn hood down when you’re in my house.” Oliver got up with William’s help and put an arm around Johnny.  “Meghan, get all the kids upstairs.”

“Nuh-uh Grand Oliver, Kid Wrangling is Rob’s job.”

Meghan’s outbursts were getting more sassy as of late and, while Oliver’s first reaction was to be hurt, Felicity tried to tell him that their granddaughter was fourteen. Meghan was the age where the kids started figuring some things out and being called to a higher purpose. Which for some reason was a family business and while she’d tried to get at least one of them into hacking, they all wanted hoods and arrows before they were ten.

Lance, the third oldest, glared at his cousin before standing. “You heard the man, everyone under the age of 17- up.”

William gave Oliver a sympathetic smile and handed Baby Oliver to his son. “Meghan so help me, if I see your face on that staircase- Your job is to protect the kids. End of story. Your time will come and it is not today.”

Cece and Brin would be doing a perimeter check- the arrival of a time ship was not as uncommon as one would think, or wish, at Queen Manor.

Ray looked over his shoulder, making sure the kids were out of earshot. “Something has happened to the time stream in the past. Vandal Savage has a timeship and we’re all pretty much screwed. Our ship is damaged, Rip is missing and when we tried to fix it in 2042 before the timeline was changed permanently, we got sent here instead.”

“Why would you be sent here?” Oliver asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He had retired years ago and the last thing he wanted was another family member traveling throughout time. _Their_ John Diggle Jr. was happily vacationing with his family in Atlantis. Johnny didn’t have a hood or a bow- or the familiar look of loss in his eyes that the one in front of them did.

But she had promised Oliver she wasn’t going to obsess about the second Green Arrow being their nephew. Nope. Not obsessing. Earth 3 or 4 or 10, wherever this one came from was not a happy place.

Felicity’s brain moved a mile a minute, processing the information in front of her. Rip was missing. They tracked him down and they were here. At this precise moment in time. In the entire world, in the whole timeline, they were here. Because Rip was missing-

“Oh fuck,” Felicity muttered, looking at her eldest grandson. While her children didn’t resemble her at all, they all shared their father’s look of confusion. She received four identical looks and wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of their current predicament.

“They’re here for Robbie,” Felicity said slowly. “They need him for his training.”

“Training? What training?” Oliver asked, taking a shaky step towards Rob. She _told him_ not to sit on the floor! Sara and Ray were catching on, but her beautiful husband had not. Robbie was Rip Hunter. And something had happened to the timeline where his existence was in jeopardy. Which meant they needed him now to start training to be Rip Hunter. To save the world from Vandal Savage. Again. Still? Already? What was the verbage for an event that already happened but could change?

Felicity kissed both of Rob’s cheeks pulling him close. “I love you, Sweetie. You’ll go on to do great things and even though I may not remember you for most of it, I am so, so proud of you.”

Artemis would never let her son go, which is why they needed to act quickly. Felicity nodded to Ray once and he grabbed Rob, the group disappearing from her living room before anyone could draw weapons or talk him into staying.

“MOM! What did you do?!”

“Robbie will be fine. I know it for a fact,” Felicity announced. “Now I am tired and going to bed.  I am _tired_. I will see all of you in the morning.”

Whenever she said she was tired (which was rare) her family members shut up. Getting some sleep would help her process this and maybe talk Oliver out of putting the hood on one “last” time to get their grandson back. Maybe by then, she’d have figured out how to tell Oliver that their grandson was Rip Hunter.

Which meant his father was Booster Gold.

And apparently she was the only person in the whole world who knew this information.

_Fuck._


	2. April 2016 (The Second Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where it gets confusing. Basically The Second Time is closer to Arrow canon, save for the fact that after the breakup Felicity moved to Central City to join Team Flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each chapter takes place in the time period indicated in the title. I hope breaking it up will help. :)

Star City was under attack.

That was a pretty common headline and Felicity steeled her resolve not to check the newsfeeds. They were fine. If they needed help, Oliver would call. Okay, maybe Dig or Thea would call. There would be a call or a text or a half-dead someone or another showing up. Okay, hopefully not the last thing. 

Felicity was busy at work and STAR Labs was finally up and running to the point that she liked.  Harry was on board. They got Jesse into school in the fall- things were good.

Metahumans and relentlessly taking apart Gideon’s source code that was her life now. No League of Assassins.  No Oliver Island Drama. No-

No more Oliver.

Okay, maybe if she checked @DailyLois for news tidbits, it wouldn’t count as snooping.  She was just a concerned, former citizen of Star City. Snooping would involve hacking news feeds and police footage and even though she could do that in two clicks, that would be snooping. She was no snooper. Or at least she was trying not to be.

“Um, Felicity? There’s something on the roof.” Cisco frowned, tapping his tablet furiously jolting her out of her little pity party.

Something very heavy was on the roof. With a few clicks and insuring the weight sensor was functioning properly, a diagnostic was done. But the cameras showed nothing. Switching to thermal, Felicity saw there was something warmer than air temperature on her roof and she had no clue what it was.

Caitlin was sitting next to her at the control station and she shot up abruptly, heading towards the roof hatch. Cisco dropped his tablet, heading after her, and Felicity maneuvered her wheelchair to follow after them. She had no idea what was going on, but usually if everyone was running, it was time to go. She hadn’t wanted an electronic chair, but STAR Labs was too big for her to try and wheel herself around while her legs recuperated.

And Old Dr. Well’s chair was just so comfy-

“Why are we running?” Cisco asked, already out of breath.

“IT’S DR. STEIN!” Caitlin finally pointed out, running backwards for a bit before whipping around.  “They wouldn’t come here unless it was significant to the timeline or they’re _hurt_.”

Cisco increased his pace. Caitlin’s heart couldn’t take another Firestorm being hurt. It just couldn’t.

The hatch opened dramatically, and four duffel bags dropped from the ceiling, followed by a rope ladder, two criminals, a teenager, Ray, and Rip Hunter. Professor Stein was the only one to use the ladder. The others just- jumped.

“She wasn’t here last time,” Rip commented oddly, looking like he was trying to gauge if her presence was a temporary thing. It wasn’t. Felicity was here to stay if that's what he wanted to know.

“I bought STAR Labs,” Felicity countered. Not that her presence was any of his business. She could tell Rip wanted to say something else, but he was quickly interrupted by his comrades.

“Great. This crack den needed an inflow of cash. I need a car.” Leonard pulled his wallet and shuffled through a few cards before showing her a STAR Labs ID Card.  One of the new ones that Felicity had just approved. A step above RFID and Bluetooth, Curtis has biometrically designed each card to resonate only at the frequency of those from their Earth. They would make millions. And a thief already had one.

Grabbing the card from him, Felicity turned it over in her hand, _Dr. Leonard Snart_ _Employee Since 2019_ on the digital display.

“Give it back, _Professor X_. I acquired that _legally_ in my line of service.”

“You can have it back in 20 minutes while I run a diagnostic. Then you can have a car and the go bag your sister left you.” Felicity clicked the button for Curtis on her phone, snapping, “My lab. Now,” As soon as he picked up.

_“Is it lunch time already?”_

“No, even better.”

Putting the chair on max speed, she headed for her lab, Leonard jumping on the back so he wouldn’t get lost. Curtis was already in her lab when she rolled in.

“Thanks for the ride, _Segway_.”

“Curtis Holt, Captain Cold, Leonard- Curtis.” Felicity held up the card with two fingers and the girly shriek Curtis gave out was payment enough.

“How does a supervillain have a key to my lab from the future?” Curtis asked skeptically, checking the card for a hidden tracker.

“Time ship,” Felicity stated mater-of-factly. “I could swear I briefed you on this before we left Star City.”

“No, Felicity, I would remember TIME TRAVELLING SUPERVILLIAN.” Curtis pushed up his glasses before looking at Leonard.  “No offense.”

“I’m not a supervillain. Master Thief maybe. I help save the world. Eventually.”

Somehow, 20 minutes turned into an hour, Curtis thoroughly documenting Snart’s involvement with the key and its uses.  Barry brings lunch in and the whole team filters in at some point before explaining that the crisis in Star City was “important” for some reason and Sara needed to go home.

Snart and Rory headed out to find his sister and once the food was gone, the rest of Rip’s team headed off to do similar things, Felicity supposed. Not knowing was probably better for the timeline.

“Ms. Smoak? May I have a word?” Rip, the only time traveler left, asked. 

Felicity glanced over at Curtis, who had been freaking out over the new card, and then at Rip. Curtis would be busy for the next three days trying to figure this particular piece of technology out.

“Sure.”

Maneuvering herself towards her office, she let Rip close the door behind them. Felicity assumed that he would be mad about her key card technology. Getting yelled at by someone whose job title was _Time Master_ was probably really bad.

“Look, I’m sorry about the key card. You don’t know me but ‘future tech’ is my bread and butter. My lifeblood, my life’s work, my white whale. That design has Smoak/Holt/Ramone all over it and having it a few years early can’t effect the timeline that much-”

“-No, Ms. Smoak, this is of a more personal matter.”

Felicity didn’t think Rip Hunter had personal matters. “Sure. Shoot.”

Rip paced around the room, his fingers shuffling against each other like she’d seen Oliver do a million times. Felicity, honestly, didn’t peg him as an archer- even if he was from the future.

She also didn’t peg him as the nervous type.

“Why are you here?” Rip finally asked, in a tone that was familiar for its breathy and controlled manner. Like when Oliver had to give them bad news. Weird.

“Why are any of us here?” Felicity countered with a nervous chuckle. “You meant _here_ , as in Central City?”

Rip had a notebook in his hand, but then seemed to think better about opening it, “In every universe, in every timeline, you are in Star City. There are few fixed points in time. A certain planet dying, losing some parents in an alleyway. These events unfold in 52/60 times. 51/52 times, you are in Star City, saving the city with the Green Arrow. In history, as I know it, this is fact.”

“You can take that up with the lying idiot under the hood, Mr. Hunter.” Felicity regretted the words once they left her mouth, but the statement was true.

“We both know you are the more intelligent one. The more mature one. I fear that if you do not return to Star City, the timeline will over-correct in undeterminable ways. And with- certain future events unfolding differently, I fear the worst is yet to come.”

Felicity didn’t even know if she could go back. Her company was here. Her friends were here- she’d made Curtis move and Smoak Technologies was finally all hers.  She was in the clear to do whatever she wanted.

Oliver would always hold a special part of her heart, but he was also the reason it was broken.

_Felicity, we have a metahuman running down 8 th street._

When she turned back from her monitor, Rip was gone.

Fast-forward to two days later.  The meta had attacked them while they were out looking for her and Barry barely able conscious enough to speed them back to the lab.

“You _knew_ about this.” Felicity looked around the room and then up at Rip who had conveniently shown up at the last minute. She was cradling Ray’s head in her lap, Barry was lying in a heap on the floor, and Caitlin hadn’t been able to stitch them all up fast enough before someone else was injured. Felicity’s already crappy leg was probably broken.

“I warned you that your move to Central City would have dire consequences for the future, Ms. Smoak.”

Pushing herself up onto her good leg, she hobbled over to where Rip was and slapped him.

“You _knew_ about this. My friends, my _family_ , are in broken little pieces on the floor and you could have at least warned us-”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen, Ms. Smoak. All I know is you don’t belong here. I had hoped to talk some sense into you, but you are apparently beyond reason. I don’t know what the future holds, but until you get your foot out of your arse, the future is up for grabs. There are so many possibilities Gideon can’t even process them all.”

Felicity could not believe the nerve of Rip Hunter and his horrible haircut and his smarmy attitude-

“Down, Angry Felicity, down,” Cisco huffed, barely getting the words out. “Felicity can stay as long as she wants, Time Master.”

“That may be true, Dr. Ramon, but she _does not_ and _will never_ belong here.”   

Rip didn’t have the right to tell her what to do, especially if he wasn’t going to say why.

“I never want to see you again,” Felicity hissed. “I would make it my mission to end you if you weren’t fighting Vandal Savage.”

Felicity did her best to turn on her heel before helping Ray up to his feet. Looking back, Rip looked- hurt. His whole demeanor changed from the confident Time Master she was accustomed to, into a sad little boy. She almost felt guilty.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the great comments, if you have any questions about any Booster or Brin or anyone really I live and breathe for DC wikis. I am not a huge comics person but the lore and backstory of some of the characters and story lines really intrigue me. Also @DailyLois is the twitter handle I made for Lois Lane- I figured in the age of Catco, she's gotta be on social media.
> 
> Also please check out my awesome beta Emmilyne's fic [Of Redemption and Inebriation](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7931977) Drinking + Olicity Forgiveness and there's a *SPOILER* that makes an appearance. This fic is therapy to our broken Olicity hearts.


	3. April 2024 (The Second Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short Chapter. More this Thursday!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> STAR Labs, a Smoak Technology Company. Starting in 2016, STAR Labs is a leader in all modern science and technological endeavors. The main campus of Smoak Technologies, STAR Labs is managed by the infamous Harrison Wells and his daughter, Jessica Wells. Notable scientists include Felicity Smoak, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and CCPD Forensic Captain Barry Allen. Their upcoming release of GIDEON, an AI for both business and at home has them posed to be a leader in technology for years to come.

 “Felicity?”

It was dark in her office.  They’d all been pulling triple shifts at STAR Labs since the skies turned red. Smoak Technologies was going to figure out why this happened and they’d all bunkered down. Then Barry had gone missing and between running atmospheric pressure tests, calming Iris down, watching the twins, scouring the globe for their favorite speedster- she barely had time to think, let alone sleep.

John had called saying that Oliver was missing and he had packed up his family and headed to Central City without a moment’s hesitation.

ARGUS Protocol was to remove leadership from chaos. And who else had government-level encryption and a secure line in and out of Star City?  STAR Labs, a Smoak Technologies Company. Had it not been life-or-death and had Felicity not slept barely 24 hours in the past week, she would have sung the jingle the guys in marketing came up with.  But alas, this was her life.

“I’m not awake, John.”

“Your godchildren are here.”

“I’m up!” Felicity tried to shake the fuzzy feeling out of her head and had run into the control room.  The two Diggle babies were walking and talking and she swore it was just yesterday that Sara was born and John Jr. was just a daydream.

STAR Labs normally had over three hundred employees. But with their unlimited sick leave policy, people tended not to show up when their lives might be in danger.

The twins were running laps in the particle accelerator to make sure they had enough power and Cisco had literally had to knock Iris out. The four people in the atrium were not unwelcome guests, but they did stick out like sore thumbs.

Especially the child who was definitely not old enough to be John Andrew Diggle, Jr. His brown chubby cheeks were just so pinchable and thinking back she hadn’t seen him since he was born. The Diggle Family didn’t exactly take vacations to Central City that often.

“Who’s that?” Johnny asked quietly, hiding behind his big sister. Sara looked back at him and maneuvered him in front of her, wrapping her arms behind his shoulders like a human seat belt.

“That’s Aunt Felicity. She and Uncle Ollie used to date when I was baby.” Sara explained. The seemed to placate her little brother even though he was too young to know what ‘date’ meant. Uncle Ollie was apparently the “bestest uncle ever” and once he had announced that to the room he held his hand out to Felicity for a fist bump.

Oliver probably was the bestest uncle ever. Piggy back rides and probably spoiled them rotten with those damn cookies he made all the time. They were second only to Big Belly Burger’s but over the past few years their recipe had really gone down the drain.

Johnny was dressed in a Green Arrow T-shirt and green hoodie. It was adorable. It was almost like it was a social visit, not one of their many life or death situations. Lyla wasn’t the head of ARGUS for nothing- one of her black ops teams was securing the perimeter and she was accessing the safest place to stash her children.

“Sara-”

“Watch Johnny with my life, don’t hack anything, and non-lethal weapons only.” Sara recited from memory. She let go of her little brother and latched onto her leg.  “It’s good to see you, Auntie. I really love that computer you sent me for Hanukkah.”

Sara’s ponytail swished behind her when she walked out of the room, her younger brother in tow.

_“Sara what’s the wifi password?”_

_“Give me two seconds.”_

“How did that happen?” Felicity asked eyes wide. “She is _nine_!”

Lyla smiled, “John’s already said he wants to be the next Green Arrow and the only time Sara’s away from the computer is when she’s at tae kwan do.”

Felicity wasn’t sure she was capable of handling that her niece wanted to be a hacker. She had hoped that one day she would be able to teach her own daughter the Smoak Ways, but that wasn’t in the cards for her apparently. Procreation in her line of work was not going to happen, so she was a strange mixture of proud and afraid.

“We’ve got a secure terminal in Wells’ office. The bunker has a clean sheets and- Is Thea with you?” Felicity asked, motioning towards the door to their left.

“She stayed behind. In case he comes back.”

Thea had not taken the breakup well six years ago and Felicity had the sneaking suspicion that Thea did not _want_ to come to Central City. With the red skies, she couldn’t really blame her but it would be nice to see more friendly faces, despite the crisis situation.

Oliver would come back for Thea. No matter what.

Lyla’s team came in from outside and set an interior perimeter around Wells’ office, hopefully he wouldn’t mind when he came back from the food run. He and Jessie had spent the better part of the week moving the metahumans and special projects away from ground zero while she and Cisco ran themselves ragged trying to fix things without their favorite scarlet speedster. Dig gave the men their assignments, and the alpha team went to patrol the building.

Gideon did that for her, but some habits were harder to break than others. Felicity went over the security enhancements, emergency protocols and best snack machines leaving the second team perched outside of Wells’ office.

“That’s my cue to lock myself in there. Be safe Johnny. And Felicity? For what it’s worth I’m sorry.”

Felicity was more than happy to let her friends use her lab. That’s what friends did, right?  Lyla went to the computer and started typing, leaving Felicity alone with her old friend.

They had been debriefed on the ride over, which left her a few precious minutes of chitchat before more atmospheric pressure tests. “I’m glad the kids are doing-”

“What happened to you, Felicity?”

Felicity didn’t know what he was talking about.

“My son doesn’t know who is Aunt is. At least in the beginning I got a few pity phone calls, but now- nothing. We’re family, dammit, and just because you and Oliver gave up, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to hear from you once in awhile.”

Diggle did not pick fights with her. Diggle was her rock.  “Gave up? What are you-”

She didn’t see the rag soaked with chloroform, but she did see the completely devastated look on her friend’s face when he pressed the cloth over her mouth.


	4. June 2052 (The First Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Queen Inc (formerly Queen Consolidated) is now celebrating it's 150th year in business. A Star City founding family company, Queen Inc is in development of several upcoming projects with NASA and is also expanding their non-profit medical technologies division. President of Cybersecurity, Sara Diggle will release a statement later today...

Closing the door to the server room, Felicity made sure it was locked before turning around and running straight into another human being.

“I’m so sorry. I am getting older and being in my own little world only gets worse with age apparently.”

The boy- man- in front of her looks too old for his twenty some years. He was no longer her grandson, Robert Thomas Queen, but Rip Hunter, Time Master. So many things made sense since Felicity had come to her grandson’s true identity. Rip picking the team he picked. Booster always putting his nose in where it didn’t belong.

And Felicity had been such an _ass_ to him; her own flesh and blood.

Changing her whole demeanor to keep up appearances, she froze. Being around one of her most well-known frenemies was different than being around her grandson. Secrecy had always been at the forefront of her operations for Team Arrow and her position at Queen Inc. The same apparently applied to Robbie’s alter ego. “Rip Hunter. Haven’t seen you in a few years. I had hoped you had died.”

“Oh, Ms. Smoak, I’m definitely not dead.”

“It’s Mrs. Queen, now, Mr. Hunter. You of all people should know that. Walk an old woman to the cafeteria? I need coffee.” Felicity held her arm out to Rip and he tucked it underneath his own. He paid for her coffee and led her over to her favorite alcove where the sun was setting.

She owned the company and, somehow, over the years everyone had just accepted that this was her chair. On the wall was a small sign: _Mr. And Mrs. Queen Sitting and Question Area_. It had a matching sign on the coffee table that could be flipped around and Rip angrily flipped it to: “Do Not Disturb,” before one of the many tech managers came to start asking her questions.

She was told that Cisco’s daughter Silva had had a similar sitting area in her cafeteria until his granddaughter, the She-Devil, took over the company.

“So what do you need, Mr. Hunter? Waverider Schematics? Gideon source code?”

“Grandma. It’s me. Rob.”

“I’m sorry, my hearing, Mr. Hunter. Did you say advice? It’s just weird that you came all this way to talk to me.”

She hadn’t known that much about Rip Hunter from her previous interactions with him, but learning that her beloved grandson was actually the same man had changed her whole perspective on him.

Felicity had never meet his son or his wife and that brought a whole new wave of sadness. He was about that age where he was probably meeting the woman- Miranda? They would marry and have a son named after Oliver-but this was not the time for sadness and she couldn’t spoil her grandson’s life for him. He needed his experience: good, bad or ugly. As much as she wanted to save him from the pain, she liked to believe that Rip would save the world. Eventually.

“There’s a situation that I had not realized. I’ve completed my training and being a Time Master is of the utmost importance to me but- I really needed to talk to you.”

“I don’t know anything about you, Mr. Hunter, but I’ll tell you the same thing I’d tell my own children: go with your gut. There’s nothing they can’t do when they put their minds to it. My oldest grandson is off at college- 16, just like his Grand Felicity. I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

He watches her sip coffee and the two of them sit in silence, before he takes his cue to leave. He flips the sign over and someone else meanders their way over towards her table.

“Sara Diggle, as I live and breathe. How’re your college applications coming along?”

“Aunt Felicity, I’ve been Head of Cybersecurity for over fifteen years now,” Sara laughed. “One day we’re gonna start thinking you really are becoming senile if you keep this nonsense up.”

Sara Diggle was an anomaly of the Diggle Family. John Diggle the second had long ago taken up the mantle of Green Arrow, but Sara had been perfectly content in front of the computers in the lair since she was tall enough to sit in her chair.

Babs had offered the Oracle mantle to her, but she was content to have her day job be her only job.

Which was surprising, even if she did work for her favorite Aunt. She liked to tell Sara that vigilantism ran in her blood, but she supposed one of them had to be on the straight and narrow.

“Johnny left this at my parent’s place last night.” The hastily written note was on the back of a Big Belly receipt dated thirty years ago. “It says ‘I’ll be back’. I had Don do the carbon dating himself- it’s legit. But Johnny and I had breakfast this morning.”

“This is why you need to come to family meetings in the lair.” Felicity chuckled, “Your brother- from the future or the past, I’m not sure, is time traveling with Rip Hunter. Legends-style.”

Sara, using her father’s steely gaze, interrupted her thoughts. “You didn’t let me finish. The note was attached to this.”

Felicity would recognize this particular Green Arrow mask anywhere. She wrote on the inside of Oliver’s mask decades ago with a silver sharpie: _come back to me_. It had been foolish and it rubbed off eventually, though the silver marking was still bright on the one in her hand.  This particular mask had gotten incinerated in a firefight and she’d started writing _watch the moneymaker_ in every mask thereafter.

“Something is wrong with the time stream.” That was the only explanation Felicity could come up in her head.

“Should I call one of the Time Masters?”

“No. Not yet.” Felicity hated dealing with those assholes. Sometimes, she wished she knew at least one of their identities but alas- no. Impossible to hack, impossible to ascertain their identities. Which was ironic because their future tech was probably based off her company's future designs.

Sara looked down the hallway towards the server room, “Who were you just talking with?”

“I- It must not have been important.” Felicity shrugged not really remembering when there more important things like the time stream, “We better check the tracking beacons to make sure no one’s lost in time- again.”

Sara nodded and headed back to her office to enact the communication tree protocols. Everyone checked in, everyone checked in with their Justice League contacts, and then they waited for any changes.

Just another Wednesday at Queen, Inc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felicity forgot about her own Grandson!? What is going on?!


	5. 2024 (The Second Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2024 Felicity Starts Her Journey Through Time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter! Yay! Let me know if it's too long. ;)

When she came to, Felicity was tied to a chair in an office, a desk cluttered with things she didn’t recognize. Definitely not her office then.

“You knew this was coming, Ms. Smoak,” Rip Hunter pointed out, closing the door behind him, while she sat tied to his chair.

So far, Felicity’s morning sucked: Vandal Savage had bombed most of downtown Central City.  Diggle had come from Star City and kidnapped her, leaving her on the Waverider with people she _used to_ consider friends. The skies were red, Oliver and Barry were missing, and things were not going well for anyone on Earth. No, she had _not_ expected to be kidnapped in the middle of a crisis.

Eight years ago, Felicity moved Palmer Tech to Central City to get away from Oliver and things had gotten better.  STAR Labs was thriving. Smoak, Inc. was doing better then she imagined in a new zip code and she had finally limited her crying to June 2nd, the day she’d picked for her wedding. She didn’t date. She worked and helped Barry. It was an easier life. Her heart didn’t break on a daily basis.

She’d lived in Central City long enough to call it home, but her heart had lived and died in Star City. The day Felicity gave the ring back, her bags were already packed at Caitlin’s apartment.  Her temporary living arrangement had turned into months and then years. Every time she saw Oliver, it killed her, but she had done her best to stay gone and he was too cowardly to ask her to come back.  Or maybe he didn’t care.

But Rip Hunter cared, cared enough to have Felicity kidnapped by her best friend to make her go back to Star City. What was left of it anyway.

“No, I didn’t know that my friend was going to kidnap me and drop me off on this hunk of junk,” Felicity responded. “Why don’t you enlighten me as to why, _Captain_ Hunter.”

Rip ran a hand through his hair- it wasn’t clear _which_ Rip Hunter he was since she had been tossed on the ship. The Rip Hunter who had just assembled his team of her friends, from 2016 was an uptight jerk. The last one Felicity had seen had been with his team for an undetermined amount of years, had lost everyone, and had come back for Ray and Sara for some future mission.  He was a quiet, borderline alcoholic.

Felicity wasn’t sure which one she preferred.

 “You need to go back in time and make things right with Oliver,” Rip finally sighed, removing his trench coat and pulling out a notebook from his desk. Felicity recognized it from the last time he’d paid her a visit. He opened a page up, showing a crude drawing of a tree, pictures of various relatives pasted onto the paper.

“Something happened to the timesteam. Oliver was supposed to raise his son, who becomes the second Green Arrow. That is the first offense to the timeline. Secondly, the two of you were supposed to be on little rascal #3 by now. And I thought, maybe it would still happen. But now that Vandal has a time ship, all the rules are out the window.”

Rip flipped the page again and there’s a picture of the two of them- if he were a gangly teenager and she were really really old.

“I can’t tell you my real name, Felicity, but the name I knew you by first is _Grand Felicity_. We need you to go back to January 2016, find _your_ Oliver, and Barry, and mend things with the younger Oliver in 2016. Otherwise, I will never exist and all of the work we’ve done to stop Vandal Savage will be for naught.”

That sounded like more bullshit excuses from Rip Hunter.  It couldn’t possibly be _true_.   “What makes you think that I would-”

Rip turned the page again, revealing a picture of Felicity smiling up at Oliver on their wedding day:  June 2nd, 2016.

“I would give anything on this Earth to have my family back. Tell me you don’t love him anymore, tell me you actually want to settle down with someone _else_ and have three kids, because, frankly, Felicity, you and Oliver not being together might just be the end of the world.”

That sent Felicity reeling.  The world needed her and Oliver to be together?  How was that even possible?

Sometimes, Felicity hated Oliver.  For making her feel like her heart wasn’t her own. For ruining her life and for how utterly weak he made her feel- and how easy it was for him to destroy her with just a few words. But still, while she loved Barry and Team Flash, Felicity knew she belonged in the Arrow Cave with Oliver and Diggle.

Settle down with someone who wasn’t Oliver and have three kids?  It was impossible.

“Why 2016? Why not 2006 or 2012 or- hell last week or last month or- why _then_?” She didn’t know if it was physically possible for her to go back there. It was possibly the most painful year of her life.  There were too many memories, too many old wounds that would be opened.

“Nothing worthwhile is always easy. You told me that once.  And that’s before you leave for Central City. I’d have gone back instead, but neither of you would have listened to _me_ , so this is how it has to be. You cannot fail, Felicity.” Rip sighed.  “My life, nay, the fate of the world, depends on it.”

So, Felicity carefully considered his plan. It was insane, but what choice did she have? 

If she thought flying was horrible, time traveling was much, much worse, but she didn’t throw up, thankfully. Gideon started scanning for any sign of Oliver and Barry Circa 2024 in 2016 as soon as they arrived. Which wasn’t very accurate since Gideon operated off of Smoak Tech Satellite Feeds that were more advanced than GPS. And those satellites would not be built for some time. 

“The plan is relatively simple, you will infiltrate the lair, install a back channel workaround for our new systems to work in 2016 and we will find Mr. Allen and Mr. Queen and bring them back to the future. It is of the utmost importance that you are not seen when this is happening, Ms. Smoak. We will then focus our efforts on your past self and then we will depart.”

The plan sounded simple, but that was rarely the case when time travel was involved.

Kendra dropped Felicity off outside of campaign office and she was on her own personal version of _Mission: Impossible._

If someone saw her walking so soon after the attack, there would be hell to pay. Her past self was barely out of the hospital after Damien Darhk tried to turn her into swiss cheese. She was probably working at Palmer Tech, her favorite coping mechanism, miserable after Oliver had lied to her again. Curtis had been a lifesaver, someone who was not on Team Arrow that she could confide in.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was looking for her, Felicity crossed the street and typed her password into the console. Walking past the bright campaign posters, and Oliver’s office, she typed her second password into the elevator- when she heard Oliver coming towards her.

He was in full Arrow gear and Felicity briefly wondered why he was there, but he was apparently sleeping in the cave. She had been too angry at the time to care.  Or notice.  It looked as if Rip’s timing could not be worse.  Pressing herself into the corner of the Elevator, Oliver finished his headset conversation with the rest of the team, tossing his hood back.

It takes him a minute to notice that she was standing next to him and another minute to remember that she should be in the wheelchair. Olive looked horrible, beyond his normal weariness.  He looked exhausted and just sick. It was the height of the Damien Darhk problems and Felicity had already gone weeks without talking to him in 2016, plus or minus eight years in her time.

“Felicity, what are you- how are you-?”

 “I think _when_ is the question you want to ask.” Felicity corrected him, “I’m not your Felicity. And I can’t tell you when or why or anything. Except that I’m here and I-she- doesn’t hate you forever.”

She didn’t realize until she said it that it was true.  Felicity didn’t have the energy to hate him anymore.  Not when she would always love him.  And, frak, she missed him.

Before she could second-guess herself, Felicity took a deep breath, crossing in front of him to pull the emergency stop. Then, wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled their bodies together and breathed him in.

He was her greatest weakness and her greatest strength, which was probably true for him as well. Oliver’s brow furrowed together in confusion, a look so Oliver, Felicity knew she made the right decision. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed him.

And, Oliver, when presented with a problem he couldn’t understand, he went with his gut.

Their lips met and he was still frowning, but he didn’t seem to care. They were kissing like it was yesterday, like the years of heartache never happened and it was just them.  Felicity and the man she loved, across miles, and, apparently, time.  Meant to be.

Oliver tasted like coffee and the blueberry pie he only bakes when he was upset and something about that was so intoxicating and so _him_.  He roughly pushed her against the rail and Felicity made room for him between her thighs, moaning happily against his mouth.

She could tell he was conflicted.  He knew she wasn’t _his_ Felicity, but then his tongue invaded her mouth and his shoulders slumped forward, relaxed.  And maybe she would always be _his_ Felicity.   Her ass was half-on the rail and he lifted her up more fully. Felicity she felt her heels loosen, and it would bite her in the ass, but this was the man she loved and they were kissing for the first time in eight years, two months and twelve days.

Moving one hand to her side, Felicity tried not to wince while they were kissing, but she had, and Oliver noticed. Sliding back down into her heels she obediently stood still while he examined her, the moment of pain gone.

“I shouldn’t have- I _hurt_ you.” Oliver’s eyes went downcast and she forced his face back up. She moved her hand to his face, over the scruff of his cheek and to his lips, doing her best to reassure him. Her little flinch was the just the tip of the iceberg.

“I have a belt of Nth metal that floats me in the air and in the soles of my shoes there’s a magnetic field that keeps me upright. If my shoes come off and I’m still standing it- hurts a little. I’m getting used to it.” Felicity promised. There had never been an occasion that she was standing and her shoes were off before. So she technically wasn’t lying.

Felicity could tell that Oliver was thinking about all the possible reasons for her to time travel before carefully choosing his words, “What happened? With us?”

 “Spoiler Alert?” Felicity chuckled, shrugging.  “She’s really, really, really mad at you.”  What else was she supposed to say without making the timeline worse?  She hadn’t planned on talking to the younger Oliver.    

“Really? I wasn’t sure with the whole ‘ _get out’_ and ‘ _never speak to me again’_ thing. The ring almost blinded me when you threw it at my face.”

Oliver returned the emergency stop into the panel and the two of them rode down to the lair. The others were still out in the field and Felicity needed to get to the computers before she had to tell _everyone_ she was from the future. 

Though, maybe she did need to talk to Oliver. The plan to sneak into the lair didn’t account for homeless vigilantes. Damn the old network not working with future tech. Maybe that was Rip’s plan all along.  To get her to talk to Oliver.

“I have good aim.” Felicity agreed finally, not really knowing what to say.

Bypassing her own systems was easy enough, but she needed to scrub all proof of her little trip to the past. Cisco had designed tech that would do the job with Gideon’s help.

Motioning for Oliver to stop, Gideon projected an image from her watch that looked like Oliver heading towards his cot. The device would loop the camera footage for her, Gideon watching the building for her digitally from the Waverider.

_“Ms. Smoak, the data has been scrubbed. You are free to move.”_

“Thank you, Gideon.” Felicity smiled, grabbing his hand and tugging him towards her computers.  Oliver already knew she was there, lying to him about _why_ wasn’t going to help anything or her mission.

Oliver pulled her onto his lap before she could blink and while she would normally protest, time was of the essence, she let it happen. Why not enjoy this. Besides, it might motivate this Oliver to get his ass in gear and win back his Felicity. 

 “Tell me about the future,” Oliver whispered in her ear, after she had worked in silence for a few moments.

“Everything is horrible. We never get back together and I moved in with Caitlin. You and Barry are missing, the skies are red and they sent me back to fix things. To fix us,” Felicity told him.  Because, if their roles were reversed, she would want to know why he was here.  And, unlike him, Felicity didn’t like keeping secrets from Oliver.  She never saw the point.

Oliver seemed to just take it all in, content to rub his thumbs in random patterns against her dress. But then an alert popped up on the screen and Felicity swore, minimizing her search windows before pulling up the traffic cam footage.

The new earbuds she designed auto-connected to Team Flash or Team Arrow’s setup for teamwork reasons.  She never thought it would come to bite her in the ass later.  Diggle’s voice talking to Thea about strategy was a sound she didn’t know how much she’d missed.

“We need to know how many exits! Oliver?! Are you there? I hear you breathing!”

“It’s me.” Felicity clenched both of her hands, wincing, while her brain worked in overdrive to talk her way out of this one.  “Oliver’s not here and I needed my backup storage drive.”

The two of them seem to accept the lie and she walks them through the bank robbery, her brain struggling to remember Lance’s number. Nowadays, she dispatched units herself from STAR Labs with a few clicks. Gideon made it much easier to run her company and Team Flash at the same time.

The perp was hog-tied for the police department to pick him up and she made some excuse about not mentioning it to Oliver that she was there alone and the other two promise to keep her secret before they head to their own homes for the night.

Oliver shifts uncomfortably underneath her. His bad knee was basically holding her up so she moved to get off his lap, but his hand stops her. “I assume you’re leaving soon. I-I need this. I need you.”

Felicity shifted to let him stretch his knee and sat again, coding her emergency beacon protocol into the computer just in case her Oliver got away from Vandal or wherever he was. There was no time or place that Oliver Queen would not be fighting to get back to Diggle and Thea. None.

“I wasn’t going to ask for advice but-”

“It’s not going to be easy.” Felicity said instead. She wasn’t sure how involved she should be in the reconciliation process. “Just because you meant well doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. I never wanted to give anyone the ability to hurt me- the way my father hurt my mother. And you did that, but worse. I had to look at your face every day and I couldn’t even walk out of the room! So I was dealing with some things. Add the fact that you have a son! A son. The worst part was that you thought I’d be upset about him. _An innocent child._ ”

They’d had the same argument a hundred times, and Felicity didn’t mean to just word vomit on him, but being back in this time, this place, things just had a way of working themselves out of her.

Oliver exhaled from behind her before finally deciding to speak, “Samantha told me she wouldn’t let me see him again if I told anyone. I told her about you. She said no.”

Felicity didn’t know what’s happened to her, but her vision blurred and she couldn’t move- she wasn’t sure if it was anger or fear or confusion, but everything seemed really close and far away at the same time. It wasn’t becoming to speak ill of the dead, which is probably why he didn’t tell her in the first place.

William was practically a man in her time.  He lived with his stepfather in Central City. To her best knowledge, he’d never seen the tape made for him by Oliver and they’d never made contact since.

She shouldn’t be this upset, _damnit_. It was eight years ago. The same old arguments were already coming up- how the hell was a normal person supposed to hide from Overwatch? She would have helped Oliver find his son. There was no way Samantha could have changed her whole life and done it well enough to be truly hidden. Felicity would have been there for Oliver, just like all of the times he was there for her. The argument shouldn’t be cutting into her flesh, making it hard to breathe. William was a good kid. Had his grandmother’s smile and Oliver’s crazy hair and-

The urge to stay and the urge to run raged a battle in her heart.  She called it a draw and stood up.

Oliver looked despondent, her silence was not doing anything so assuage his guilt. “Tell me there is something to look forward to, because I see nothing. I’m stumbling around in the dark and it’s killing me. It killed us already.”

“I wouldn’t be here if it killed us, Oliver. Nothing worthwhile is easy.” Felicity rephrased the words Rip had told her earlier and it grounded her to her mission. She was in this. Forgiving Oliver, finding him- she would do it. For the future. For- love.

The computer beeps at the best possible time and she instructs Gideon to scrub the data from the computer. With a quick peck to Oliver’s lips. “My advice? Don’t wait.  Fight for us.”

Heading for the elevator, she waited for the doors to open, only to see- herself in her wheelchair. For some reason, her gut instinct is to run the other direction and back to Oliver, but the other Felicity had already closed the doors.

Her younger self was not surprised at her presence. “I knew Oliver would be here alone so I put in extra cameras not on the main system,” she told her older self. “But if you were from the past you wouldn’t know that, which is why you pulled the emergency stop when you attempted to remotely hack the system you _already_ designed- that’s how I knew you were from the future. If the legs weren’t a dead giveaway.”

Young Felicity looked horrible.  Almost as bad as Young Oliver.  Anger was why her younger self got up in the morning and without that she-they- would be catatonic.

All Felicity wanted at this point is to get back to the Waverider and away from her own misery so she jabbed the button for the elevator to go back up. From across the elevator all she got was a death glare. Being on the receiving end of her own Angry Face was scarier than she liked to admit.

“Why are you here?”

“You know I can’t tell you.” Though, she had told Oliver.  Why was it easier to tell him than herself?

Besides, Felicity wasn’t even sure where she would start. Rip Hunter. Oliver. Oliver missing in time. Rip Hunter being her grandchild. Moving to Central City. But she knew herself pretty well and if their roles were reversed she’d want to know everything.

Young Felicity’s angry face melted into something much sadder. Begging, “You need to tell me _something_ otherwise you wouldn’t be in my Arrow Cave.”

Felicity was reminded of her own hard decision to move to Central City. She would have given anything for insight into the future.

“Oliver is never going to change. I decided that. It’s probably true. I packed up all of my stuff and moved to Central City. I’ve spent the past eight years punishing him for lying and punishing myself for turning into our father. Felicity, your life didn’t end over that summer with him, it just started. And loving Oliver Queen is one thing I’ve never regretted. They sent me back in time to persuade you to stay, but I don’t think anything I could say would make you change your mind. We told Oliver once that we couldn’t be with someone who chose to not be happy, be happy, Felicity.”

Stepping around from the wheelchair, Felicity headed back towards the street, but hesitated, turning back she asked one last question, “Do you think you’ll ever be happy without him?”

Young Felicity swallowed, whispering, “Were you?”

Giving her a sad smile, Felicity let her misery show on her face, before turning again and swiftly walking out of the office.  Her tracking software was active and as long as her past self didn’t go digging for it immediately, they would be in the clear.

Signaling for Ray to come get her, she took pride in making it back to the ship before she started crying.

“Did it work?” Kendra asked gently, rubbing tiny circles into her back.

“It worked, it has to. Felicity is stubborn enough to only listen to herself and time travel is not taken lightly by either woman,” Rip confirmed. “Now, let’s go find Barry and Oliver before Iris from 2024 kills me. The woman is just resourceful enough to do it from there.”


	6. 2035- Star City (The First Time)

“Wicity!”

Felicity debated the pros and cons of poking a small child. Her tiny grandson had discovered that talking was his favorite activity, as per Smoak Tradition, and delightfully squealed, “Wicity,” whenever she walked into the room.

He was a little red-haired baby model and, apparently, Oliver said her name so many times that instead of Grandma, “Wicity” was stuck in his little head.

Robbie peered over the edge of her desk, the bright lights from the holoscreen intriguing him. Pulling the toddler into her lap, she pulled a picture of herself up onto the screen, “See? _Grandma._ Grand. Ma. _”_

 He looked at the screen and then up at her face, confusion written all over his little face.

“Gran Wicity?” That sarcastic little-

Oliver’s bark of laughter could be heard over the comms and Robbie clapped happily, “Gran Owiver?”

“What happened to no kids in the War Room?” Diggle laughed. The two of them were at Watchtower in Gotham setting up the new training room and Felicity may have gotten bored given how easy it was to hack into Oracle’s systems. Babs was losing her touch. Besides, there were _always_ children in the War Room. Johnny was doing homework not five feet away and Sara had been “secretly” checking Speedy’s GPS signal for the past hour.

Felicity gave Sara a pointed look, “That was only because _your_ kid was trying to hack into my systems since she could sit up by herself.”

“My kid works in your IT department, so something worked out-”

Artemis and William were heading downtown on his motorcycle and Cece was training with that wolfboy she “wasn’t dating”. Kids in the War Room was a common occurrence.

Then line went silent, too silent, and at first Felicity though, maybe, Babs finally got the best of her but the connection was stable. Her satellites were working at maximum efficiency and the power levels in Gotham were fine. Robbie hadn’t touched anything.  He was too preoccupied with his stuffed bear.

 “Gran Owiver?”

 “I’m sure he’s fine, sweetie.” Felicity lied, hacking her way into Watchtower’s Camera feed. Once she did she could see that Oliver and John were talking to someone off camera, but their body language was relaxed. So no threat. They were fine after all, just busy yapping with Bruce or- _herself_?

She clicked furiously to get a better picture- she, the other Felicity, was there with someone. Something in her hand was blocking her audio stream, but whatever they were talking about was not good. Well, if she couldn’t listen, she sure as hell was going to run facial recognition on their mystery guest.

Switching monitors, she waited for Gideon to work her magic and frowned, “Gideon, this can’t be correct.”

“I’m afraid it is, Dr. Queen.” The AI helpfully chirped, “The only way a file can be redacted in my system is a blood sample, passphrase and blood pressure reading. This file passed all three. Even I cannot open it.”

The screen showed a picture of the man, a schematic of the laser pistol he carried and then the word: FRIENDLY. The rest of his information, his name, his city of origin, anything that SHOULD be there was whited out and words REDACTED BY ORDER OF FELICITY QUEEN flashed across the screen. She helped build Gideon- to _help-_ not to add red tape. But she was a genius and she would figure this out.

“When was it redacted?”

_“I can’t answer that.”_

“Where was it redacted?”

_“Again, Dr. Queen, I can’t-”_

Switching gears, Felicity made it a permissions issue instead of the information contained within, “Who else has seen the file? How many times has it been opened? When was it opened? Where?”

Gideon paused, her digital brow furrowing, “According to my records, the last time it was opened was by Robert Queen, at Terminal 7, 2052”

Felicity looked to her grandson, the adorable little toddler he was, snoozing away in an armchair, thumb in his mouth. Running a hand through his red curls, she smiled fondly at him. “Well, I guess there’s two geniuses in the family now.”

“THREE!” Sara chirped from behind her monitor. Felicity conceded her point.

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where Terminal 7 is?”

_“Terminal 7 has not been built yet, Dr. Queen.”_

Perfect.

Switching back to the other monitor, she watched as Other Felicity leaned over to kiss Oliver’s cheek and waved up at the camera, calling, “Tell her I’m sorry. I know how much we hate mysteries.”

The man turned his head and looked up at the camera. “How do you know she’s watching?”

Felicity looked at herself and got the creepiest feeling when the two of them both said, “Because I know,” at the same time. Time travel?  Alternate universe?  Either way, the mystery would not be a mystery long.  She only had to wait fifteen years.

Mics back on, Felicity went back to spying on her husband and her best friend, giving her best commentary. She was so preoccupied with hanging out with her friends that she completely missed a heist at one of their warehouses in the Glades.

“Little Diggle came through in the clutch.” Thea nodded, after she’d taken care of it and returned to base, doing a complicated series of a fistbumps with Sara. “Mainly because Artemis ditched me. Ah to be young and obsessed with boys.  Don’t miss that at all.”

Sara started coughing, “Bullshit,” from her desk and that was enough to get Johnny’s attention.

“Aunt Thea has Boy Problems? This I gotta hear.”

 “Just the _one problem_ with two different guys. And on that note, I am going home.”

Thea had removed her hood and mask and placed them on her mannequin, when the telltale metahuman alert went off at the front door.

A speedster dashed past them, crashing into the salmon ladder, waking poor Robbie up from his nap. Bow up, Thea stalked towards the interruption, who was still smoking from his abrupt reentry.

Felicity’d never met the infamous Wally West but she knew his loss hit Iris and Barry hard. “Gideon call Iris. Now.”

“Wait, you know this is?” Johnny asked curiously, seemingly debating whether or not he should go for Oliver’s bow in its display case behind them. Thea put her bow down and an arm out to stop their wayward nephew.

“How many Black Speedsters do you know, Genius?” Sara sighed from across the room.  “Don and Dawn are accounted for so this has to be Back-From-The-Dead Wally. He evaporated into the Speed Force before you were born.”

“I _WHAT_?” Wally sat up, checking his burned clothing for his cellphone. It was a charred piece of black plastic. “Where’s Iris? My Dad? Who are you people?!”

_“Hey Gurl, what’s up? Gids said it was important and I have two children who are about to destroy my house in search of Pizza. One of them is Bear.”_

Felicity patched in her camera feed. and moved her camera to Wally. “Early Christmas present. I found Wally.”

Wally tried to smile at his sister, but ended up crumpling back to the floor.

“-Also we may need a doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The First Time sounds great huh? Too bad Vandal had to ruin everything...


	7. January 2016 (The Third Time)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I FORGOT TO POST THIS WEEK SO HERE'S TWO CHAPTERS :>

STAR LABS

 

One would think that time travelling would solve most of her problems, but aside from barely remembering all of her 2016 security protocols almost a decade later was a special hell she didn’t want to ever experience again. Pulling up the files, Felicity frowned. The last time her Oliver’s tracking device had been activated was in Central City. Two weeks ago.

He and Barry showed up, they were at STAR Labs for all of ten seconds and then they disappeared. Which meant more people needed to learn about her grand time traveling adventure and when the ship landed on STAR Labs roof, she was down the hatch before Snart could ask Gideon where his sister was.

“Felicity? I thought Professor Stein-”

“See? This is how it should have gone _the_ _last time_ ,” Rip muttered. “Hello Dr. Snow. We are fine-”

Felicity pulled her friend in close and squeezed as hard as possible. When Barry had gone missing there was radiation from the red skies with metas popping up left and right.

All of Cisco’s nightmares had come true and Caitlin, her best friend, her confidant, had turned into Killer Frost. She hadn’t been able to suck the heat out of the air like her Earth-2 counterpart and killed three people before- she pushed them all away and high-tailed it for Antarctica.

“Just let the hug happen, Cait,” Felicity informed her, nodding affectionately at Cisco. “Cisco and I need to talk, but you and I are getting dinner and then ice cream and we are gonna cry and cuddle until you feel better.”

Once she, Rip, and Cisco were alone she started explaining the story, but Cisco stopped her.

“Dudes, you’re talking to Vibe. The less I know the better. You’re not from _here_ and you need my help, all I need to know.”  Cisco cracked his knuckles out in front of him and waited for directions.

“Please,” Felicity said, rolling her eyes.  “I’m the best hacker on Earth-1, 2 and 3, if you count the years of experience I have on my doppelgangers. I don’t need help from the Minor Leagues.”

Cisco clutched his heart. “Future Felicity is a Bit-.”

Felicity gave Cisco a pointed look. “-I just need to know if Barry was here two weeks ago acting weird. I’ve traced him to this point.”

“We haven’t cracked intertime tracking yet?” Cisco frowned. “Not even on a TIME SHIP?”

Felicity looked to Rip and he gave a sassy look that just _screamed_ Thea Queen, before replying, “It was an upgrade that Queen, Inc and Ciscotech were working on. The head of development, Ms. Ramon was stalling.”

“Whoa, hold up. _Ms_ Ramon?”

“Your granddaughter, obviously, Mr. Ramon. Do I need to explain how to you how procreation works?” Rip mocked, seemed bitchiness was genetic too.  “You, somehow, got a woman to sleep with you, _several_ times, she married you, and then you somehow had six kids. One of _their_ kids, the worst of them, talked all of her siblings into giving her full control of the company and then singlehandedly renegotiated all existing contracts. Ciscotech was a non-profit and now it’s #2 on the Forbes list.”

“Rip Hunter is also a Bit-” This time Cisco stops himself, taking a critical eye between the two of them. Felicity wasn’t sure why, but then looking over to Rip, the two of them were in the same hunched over position, both of them trying to sneak a glance at whatever Wells was working on. “The Case of the Curious Smoaks-”

“Nope. Nope. No Smoaks here! Well, one Smoak.  Me.  And this is Rip _Hunter,_ a time master from the future,” Felicity corrected him. If she couldn’t save Oliver she could at least protect Rip’s identity. Cisco opened his mouth to say something and then abruptly shut it.

“The only way for me to help you track future Barry is to open up the Waverider schematics and let me potentially change the future by letting me know how AWESOME I am, because this has Cisco written all over it and not just Felicity Smoak.”

“That’s the best part, Mr. Ramon. We actually don’t need you at all. The last thing I need is Ria Ramon to have the keys to destroying the universe.” Rip laughed at a joke the rest of them didn’t understand. “We just need access to the copy of Gideon Eobard Thawne brought back.”

“Guys, there’s a metahuman running down 8th Street.”

Felicity remembered this Meta. Flashback, as dubbed by Cisco, had a precognition power that almost made it impossible to hunt down. She escaped before they could get her in the pipeline and nearly killed Ray in the process. Looking to her friend chatting with Stein, Felicity knew she wasn’t going to let that happen this time.

“Her name is Kelly Benson. Her power is to see the future and-” 

Barry put a hand up to interrupt her word vomit, “Hey Felicity…umm, this is definitely dude and he is definitely able to make himself invisible.”

Rip gave her a pointed look and Felicity wanted to scream, “So help me Rip if the words ‘unintended consequences’ come out of your mouth I am going to hack you out of your own timeship.”

She gone on this crazy trip through time to help him and if was going to be a _jerk_ all the time she wasn’t going to help him anymore. “I’m going to help my friends. You’re going to just have to deal with that.”

And when Cisco sets her up with her own login to their systems, she fully intends for that to happen. They need satellites that track heat signatures and Wells and Cisco go off to get that done and waiting on them to build the tech, Rip heads off towards Gideon.

The boring part of being superheroes was the waiting, so Stein, Leonard and Jax went to see their families, leaving her and Ray in the main room alone. “Where’s Sara?”

“Oh, we came back because of an incident she came across in a history book. It was possibly Vandal Savage but when we got back to 2016, it was nothing. She’s just visiting with her sister.”

Felicity brought up the comms and the video in the Arrow lair. She might as well see if things had improved at all between her and Oliver-

Young(er) Felicity was typing away at her work station.  Oliver walked into view, and stopped short, smiling at the back of her head.

Placing a kiss on the top of her head before she could protest, his smile got even bigger when she let it happen without anything else being said.   It was clear he was still in love with her, but his Felicity was still angry. Being angry was easy.

She leaned back to say something to him, poking him in the face with her pen and he wasn’t having it. Oliver removed her high heel and started massaging her foot-

Felicity had to turn the feed off. Ray looked up at her with the same puppy dog eyes he always had and reached over the console to grab her hand. “That hurts, huh?”

It did.  Because her anger had faded years ago and now she just- missed him.

“If Oliver is here, he’s fighting for a way back to you. I don’t care what time you’re from or what happened. Some things don’t change. He is a stubborn, weirdly possessive of people who aren’t his girlfriend, _ass,_ who will be the same until he dies.”

That wasn’t a comfort to Felicity, but she gave Ray a teary smile and then started worrying about Oliver in honest.

***

 

STAR CITY  
January 2016 (The Third Time)

Furiously trying to rotate her chair away from him, Felicity was torn between kicking him in the crotch or allowing him to keep massaging her feet. Even if she couldn’t actually get her leg up to kick him. She didn’t feel much down there but what she did feel was his rough hands easing pain she might have felt.

It was a strange sensation for sure, but ever since she decided to stay, Oliver had taken every opportunity to touch her. Staying meant Felicity was willing to try. It didn’t mean that all of their problems were magically fixed. 

Decide to allow him to keep up his massage, she stuck up her other foot to him and he sat down in his chair and obediently rubbed her other foot.

“I can barely feel that, you know.”

“Irrelevant.” Oliver countered. Patrol would be starting soon and he should be gearing up, not sitting in a very nice suit annoying her.

Clicking through the security feeds on the monitor behind him, Felicity looked for something, _anything,_ would disrupt the awkward silence between the two of them.

She had had nowhere to live now that she wasn’t moving in with Caitlin and moving back into the loft had seemed like a horrible idea when Oliver suggested it-

But she had moved back in that morning. Oliver had gotten in late last night and packed her a lunch. She’d gone to the fridge as habit- but her lunch box was there next to the cold press mug and slow cooker eggs for breakfast. Damn those tasty eggs. He was trying to win her back through her stomach. And it was working.

“I can’t just forget everything that happened.”

“I don’t expect you to.” Oliver said quietly, gently returning her foot to the floor. “I just- I had my own stupid reasons for doing things and I didn’t do them with the intent of hurting you. Barry-”

The elevator doors opened behind him and she motioned for Sara Lance to not interrupt the probably informative conversation.

“-He changed time. When we fought Vandal Savage, you found out about William before I could even process anything and we all died. I wasn’t in the best mindset. I’m still not. I should have done things differently when I had a second chance, but I didn’t know what to do.  I do know, I can’t do this without you and maybe I’m still that selfish kid I used to be but- I love you. Now. Always.”

Sara motioned towards Oliver and then her mouth before making a kissy face.

“I think Sara wants to kiss you,” Felicity laughed, finally starting to feel normal.  “Laurel’s still on patrol, I can patch you in-”

Sara shook her head and clicked her earbud on, “I got the upgrade early. Laurel? It’s me. We need to talk- I’ll be at your apartment in ten.”

She put her hands into the shape of a heart before leaving something in the storage locker they provided for her. “Ollie, I will beat you up if you don’t fix this.”

“Noted.” Oliver smiled. “Take care of yourself, Sara.”

“You know me. Kicking ass, taking names, looking hella cute. That’s me.”  Doors closed and Sara made the heart sign again before pointing at Felicity with a smirk.

Maybe Felicity wasn’t good at forgiveness, but she had some great reasons to try. Oliver smiling.  Dig.  Team Arrow. She was resolved to _try_.

“I’ll let you take me to dinner before patrol. You can tell me all about the island.”

“Which time? You were there once, you know,” Oliver joked.

Minefields. A simpler time. _A sweatier time_ , her brain reminded her.

Oliver wheeled her down the ramp and started locking up. Maybe things would go better if Felicity gave into her baser instincts. Maybe they’d go worse. But relationships were about two people and she had to give as good as she got, even if things were strained between them.

“Big Belly?” Oliver asked.

“No, how about that Noodle Place you wanted to try?”

If his smile was any indication, the prospect of a sit down dinner was enough to make his week.

 


	8. January 2016 (The Third Time)

Central City

 

They still had no way of tracking the metahuman. Working theory was that he wasn’t a metahuman but a robot or cyborg and that was even bordering on ridiculous, even for them. Felicity and Caitlin had been running scenarios all night, while Barry and Cisco zipped around trying to get a vibe.

“What are you going to do? When we find him?” Caitlin asked.

“Well, first I’m going to ask him how he makes himself invisible with no noticeable increase in temperature. Most metas have an energy component, like Barry and his food. And then I’m going to implement that in cloaking technologies-”

“-No, I meant Oliver. I heard the break up was- not good- and that’s not accounting the however many years you’re from the future. I know this is an old wound for you, but coming from me, you need to hold onto him with both hands. I’ve lost enough to know when it’s worth holding on to,” Caitlin told her gently, biting her lip.  “He’s not perfect, but he loves you. You should have seen the ridiculous set of rules he _mailed_ over.”

That made Felicity look up.  “Wait, what?”

Caitlin dug into the desk and flopped the manila envelope down in front of her. It must have contained at least fifty handwritten pages. Why Oliver would take the time to handwrite-?

Then Felicity remembered the journal she picked up for him in the airport in Germany. “These are from his journal.” 

> _Caitlin,_
> 
> _Being Felicity’s roommate means you’ve made a commitment to me that you’ll help take care of her. Felicity will want to eat brownies from Big Belly Burger- this is a mistake. There are traces of nuts that aren’t really traces but almond flour. I make her Martha Stewart’s recipe with a blend of 2/3 coconut oil, 1/6 Shortening and 1/6 organic vegetable oil. You need to swap it out before she notices it’s not theirs. These freeze well, just hide them in an old bag of asparagus- she won’t look there._
> 
> _Felicity, as you know, loves coffee. However, she is a grouch in the morning. And usually can’t summon the will to make said coffee without grumbling. Loudly. Since I’m out at night, I’ve started to hide the coffee maker.  You need to buy a Chemex coffee maker and leave it in the fridge overnight then she can just take it to work. You’ll need a spill-proof mug. Or three. She tends to break things in the morning._
> 
> _Then there’s just a few other things…._

“I would give anything for Ronnie to just show back up,” Caitlin murmured as she finished reading. ‘ _Surprise, Cait! I’ve got a story for you.’_   And for Jay to have never happened and maybe that’s weak or low of me and maybe that’s not how you feel at all. It’s one thing to not talk because you need space, it’s another thing entirely to not be able to say those things because they’re _gone_ and if I know anything about Felicity, she doesn’t handle _gone_ very well.”

It was a lot to think about, both Caitlin’s words and that journal.  Too much to focus on and still find this Metahuman, so Felicity nodded and turned back to her work, vowing she would give it the time it deserved once the current crisis had passed.

Cisco walked into the room, not evening looking up from his tablet, serving as a further distraction Barry came in behind him and navigated him back to the main console.

 “Wait, what if he _is_ a robot. I mean, how would you cloak? You would reflect light AND sound! That means _tech._ And since we have the MVP of tech here we can finally crack my EMP STUN DARTS!” Cisco started dancing around the lab, his moonwalk ending abruptly when he bumped into the desk.

“Cisco’s been waiting for a Terminator-esque apocalypse since Day One,” Barry snorted. “But he’s also convinced there would be good robots and bad robots, hence the need for a localized EMP. To, you know, keep the good ones around. I don’t know why he wouldn’t just use nanites-?”

Felicity shook her head.  Rookie mistake, Barry. “Because nanites could be manipulated by the source code of the androids-”

While Cisco tried to talk over her with, “-Nanites could become corrupted.”

Laughing for the first time in her crazy time traveling adventure, Felicity slapped high fives with Cisco, accidentally bumping her keyboard to replay the security feed from the invisible man’s last crime scene. Walking around, his hands on his hips, was a man in a baseball cap and jacket.

But Felicity knew that face anywhere.

“What’s with the hats? And what’s with the villain?”

Working her magic, Felicity pulled up the image on the big screens, “That, is one Oliver Queen. And THAT is Kelly Benson. They’re in cahoots! Cahooters!”

Searching for Smoak Tech wireless frequencies, Felicity quickly modified the broadband a few degrees and then picked up her phone to dial. She thought Oliver had been kidnapped! Or being tortured! But he was perfectly fine: that irritating, infuriating, horrible-

Oliver’s voice was confused when he answered the phone, “Hello?”

She was going to be calm. She was going to be composed. “What the frack are you doing in 2016 with that floozy?!”

Felicity’s screaming may have alerted everyone to her conversation, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Rip looked like he was about to tear his hair out, but she was feeling emotional and sometimes that erupted in new and surprising ways.

 “Felicity?” Oliver asked, surprise evident in his tone.  “What are you doing in 2016?”

“I came after your deadbeat ass, worried sick-”

“-You were worried about me?” She could tell Oliver meant to sound playful but he just sounded-sad.

Yes, Felicity worried about him. She worried about Oliver every day, in every possible way and even on the rare occasion that she tried to date someone new, she had been so paranoid that Oliver would find out and hate her for ending their stalemate that Felicity had left whatever his name was alone at the restaurant. Even if @DailyLois liked to make a spectacle of taking a picture of Oliver every time he went out to dinner with a member of the opposite sex.

Oliver spun around a few times before he spotted the ATM camera Felicity was currently borrowing. Then he smirked up at her. “I knew you still loved me.”

“Well, not anymore,” Felicity snapped, irritated at being called out like this, in front of everyone. “Where’s Barry? Iris apparently sold me out to Diggle, who _kidnapped_ me to make me come get you and what do I get? Anxiety attacks! And you’re perfectly _fine_.”

Cisco interrupted her tirade when he sent her the schematics for his “EMP Dart” and there was no way it would work. They still had a meta/android/whatever to catch because she and her _friend_ Rip had messed with the timeline.  So, multitasking it was. 

Shoving the phone against her shoulder, Felicity clicked furiously and addressed Cisco, “What are you shooting this from? A blow dart? This will never fly out of a gun. Or a bow for that matter.”

Cisco’s look of annoyance was noted. She couldn’t help it if her gut instinct was to make sure it could shoot out of a bow.

“It’ll work. Barry can throw it. Like a dart.”

“Cisco, I’m telling you it won’t work,” Felicity snapped.  She didn’t have time to justify every little thing to him.

Oliver’s playful tone disappeared and turned into his ‘mayoral schmoozing’ voice, “You’re busy. I’ll let you go-”

“I’m not done yelling at you yet!” Felicity barked.  And there was the fact that he was the reason she was stuck back in this god forsaken year to begin with.  “You’re going to tell me why you’re here and why the sky is red and why I had to come drag you home and if I’ve been a horrible aunt to my niece and nephew because Dig said some pretty _hurtful_ things to me before he _drugged_ me and maybe I missed talking to you. I guess.”

Kelly elbowed Oliver in the side and he smiled, all dimples and cheeks and the last thing Felicity wanted was to feel jealous, but she did, goddamn him, and it only mad her more annoyed.

Kelly took the phone from Oliver and held it up to her face. “Hello, Dr. Queen. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Really? Because the last time we met you tried to kill me and all of my friends.” And who the hell is Dr. Queen?  Not her, that's for sure.  Not only was she not a doctor, but she wasn’t married-the painful shots just wouldn’t stop coming, would they?

“Legion Directive 151812-B is to find and neutralize Rakjen-1Z at all costs,” Kelly explained with all the sense that was not. “He was sent back here by a man named Vandal Savage to destroy Felicity Queen-”

There was _no_ Felicity Queen and the reminder was damn painful.  But Rip said there was a time that they were married.  Did that mean Kelly was from-

The invisible, whatever it was, sprung at Oliver and his friend.  Whatever _Kelly_ used as a weapon fried the camera from across the street, but Felicity saw Oliver grasp his knee before hitting the ground, before the screen went black.

If Felicity had to guess it was an un-localized EMP. Which would have fried Oliver’s knee, leaving him vulnerable. Grabbing her bag, she turned to her friend. “BARRY! GET ME THERE NOW!”

So far this week, Felicity had been on a time ship, super-speeded downtown, and been drugged. She missed her Netflix sofa. She missed her day job.  And the second Barry stops, Felicity’s feet are on the ground and she was running towards Oliver who was still crumpled on the ground.

Rip’s voice barked her in hear, _Anytime Now, Mr. Allen. I too, would like to investigate._

Barry flicked off the ATM Camera before heading back towards STAR Labs

“I told Cisco to not use the cybernetic implant, but you just had to be able to jump off rooftops on your bum knee,” Felicity groused, digging into her purse for her Multi-Tool Adapter for her ST Phone and plugging it into his knee with a little more force than necessary.

“Ow.”

“Oh shut, up you big faker.” Felicity leaned forward to kiss his forehead before she could stop herself and went back to rebooting the implant in his knee.

Oliver smiled dopily at her and maybe she didn’t regret the kiss. “You travelled back in time for me.”

“So did you. How did you get here?” Felicity asked stashing the cables back into her purse.

He held up his right hand and smiled. “It’s called a Legion Ring-”

Running her hand down his finger she reached for the gold part of the curious shaped ring.

“NO! DON’T TOUCH IT!” Rip’s voice fell on deaf ears because she’d already touched it. And then the floor dropped from beneath the two of them and she was holding onto Oliver’s leg for dear life.

**


	9. Star City 2024 (The First Time)

November 2024

In a blink, the two of them were no longer on the sunny Central City street, but in a library. Oliver’s knee had rebooted and he was up into a crouch, shielding Felicity from whatever they were about to encounter. There was noise from down the hallway, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

The telltale sign of heels clicking down the hallway had Oliver on even higher level of alert and if Felicity weren’t wedged between him and a floor to ceiling bookcase, she would be trying to hack into the wifi signal. But there was like half a millimeter between their bodies and she had no idea if her purse had even made the trip.

_“-Oliver! This is not a ‘little house’ this is a mansion.”_

_“It’s our mansion.”_

Felicity did not own a mansion. She lived in a penthouse near STAR Labs. And Oliver’s mansion looked nothing like this the few times she’d been there, so they must have time travelled again. To the future. But who’s future?

_“And what are we going to tell the doctor when Cece hurts herself sliding down that huge banister in the entryway.”_

_“We’ll get pillows. Lots of pillows. A pillow crashpad.”_

_“You better not be taking them off my side of the bed. I need those pillows for sleeping reasons-”_

She couldn’t hear what Future Oliver was saying, but Felicity did hear a slamming noise and Future Felicity giggling, “ _Oliver! No! The kids are still around and we have guests coming. I thought we were just renting this place- I need to get the security up and running if we’re going to live here.”_

She was straining to hear what they were saying, but her Oliver had grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.  The voices got further away and Felicity exhaled a breath of relief. They were apparently safe in the library for now. Now she could figure out how the stupid ring worked and get back home.

The light clicked on leaving two very confused children staring at them. The eldest one had a bow trained on them while the youngest one watched the door. Oliver put his free hand up defensively and Felicity followed in suit.

“What are you doing in our house?!” The little one demanded.

“William?” Oliver choked at the teenager’s presence once he realized who he was. His grip on Felicity’s hand loosened. “Why are you here? What happened to your mother?”

William was not having any of that and kept the bow centered on his chest. “She died. Car accident. Dad and Felicity came to get me from Central City. Now you talk. Why are you here?”

The girl, who Felicity assumed this was the banister sliding Cece, seemed to be starting to doubt their current course of action. “She looks like Mommy, Billy.”

“Oh, I am no one’s mother. Yet. Or ever. Or- I have a headache.” Felicity tried not to sound panicked, but having two children, three children, grandchildren, was just hitting her. A life she could have had. The life she should have had.

Cece walked past her older brother and tugged on her arm. Felicity wasn’t sure what was happening, but she suddenly had an armful of little girl who smelled like peach shampoo. Were little girls always so soft? Her dark hair was in two messy braids and she had seen enough pictures of Thea as a child to know that they could pass for twins.

Paternal Twins, but twins nonetheless. William put the bow down once Cece was in her arms and holding a child that may or may not come out of her womanly parts was a surreal experience to say the least.

“Were you expecting someone blonder?” William asked, with a smirk that was so very Oliver.  “We all know you dye it. Cecelia looks just like you when you were a girl. And Artemis- definitely a Smoak.”

“I FOUND YOU!” A new voice interrupted them. “What are you doing in here?”

The other two did not seem happy that this tiny being who must be Artemis ‘found them.’ Felicity was still trying to wrap her mind around having one child, having _three_ just seemed out of the realm of possibility.

“Daddy said no weapons in the house,” Artemis tattled, eyes wide and innocent as if the two of them had not witnessed William with the bow first hand.

“We haven’t even moved into this house yet, Tattletale,” Cecelia pointed out, clearly annoyed. “Go away.”

Felicity doesn’t know why her first instinct is to glare at her eldest daughter, but for some reason it made the child huff and scramble out of her arms to hug her little sister. “I’m sorry, you just annoy me so easily.”

“Wait, what year is it?” Oliver asked suddenly, his forehead doing the crinkly thinking thing.

“2024.” The three of them chimed.

“How old is Cecelia?”

“I’m 10! How old are _you_?”

Felicity did the mental math. It wasn’t adding up. That meant she was born in 2014. AKA not physically possible. AKA Oliver was sleeping with Sara. AKA her brain was about to explode. Or maybe implode. Imploding was worse, right?

This was not the 2024 they left behind. And it wasn’t their future, because 2014 had already come and gone.

Artemis grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the couch, pulling a book off the shelf. “This is Mommy when she was pregnant with me. This is Mommy when she was pregnant with Celia and this is William’s Mommy pregnant with him. This is Grammoira with me when I was a baby. This is Grand Robert at Cece’s soccer game last week. This is Mommy’s first day at work when she met Daddy. Daddy was late for work and he spilled his coffee on his laptop and took it to Mommy to get it fixed.”

The pictures were of complete squiggles with varying color patterns and shapes.

Flipping around she pointed out the puppy she wanted for Hanukkah and the dress she was going to wear to her wedding.

Felicity had just seen three children that didn’t exist, she didn’t need to think about their marriages right now, “Maybe it’s a little early to start planning your wedding, Kid.”

Felicity looked up and the others in the room had disappeared.

Artemis exhaled, not surprised. “They do that a lot, because I’m the littlest.”

“She’s like what? Three years older than you?” Felicity sighed. “What does your Mommy say about that?”

“She says she’s sorry for raising a free-minded, intelligent young woman and that she’ll maybe grow out of it in a few years. Cece’s very attached to Billy. It was just the two of them forever.”

Felicity supposed that was true, but still, she liked to think that her daughters would get along.

 “Artemis? Darling, it’s time for dinner.”

Felicity looked up and -Moira Queen was alive.

Moira Queen was alive and staring at her.

Felicity couldn’t process this information.

“Grammoira and Grandpa Rob are here! See? My picture was spot on, Mommy.” Artemis motioned to the triangle with pearls that was apparently her interpretation of Moira Queen. Who was alive.  Not dead. Alive. Breathing. Not a figment of her imagination/nightmares.

Artemis hugged Moira’s leg, like it was a regular occurrence and beamed up at her. “Is Grand Donna here? And Grand Lance?!”

Wait Grand LANCE? As in DETECTIVE LANCE? HE MARRIED HER MOTHER?

“It is Thanksgiving, honey. Everyone is here,” Moira reminded her.

As strange as having Moira Queen be alive was, having Robert Queen alive was even more shocking. Panic. Adrenaline. All of the above. Nothing could be worse than this-

Trying to get herself to breathe, Felicity shelved her anxiety over seeing Moira Queen, and having to pretend like that was something that happened everyday. Bored with "grownup talk" Artemis went to run out of the room, until she smacked right into someone. Already apologizing for her "daughter" Felicity turned more fully towards the person, not really listening until Artemis screamed, “AUNT SHADO!”

-She just had to jinx it.


	10. 2024 (The First Time)

Star City

Felicity wasn’t sure if her brain was functioning properly, but Shado, was gorgeous and smiling and holding her daughter and talking animatedly about the North China Sea in the Winter being horrible and not nice like it was when they came to visit last year.

“Why is the first thing you always say to me, ‘You’re so gorgeous’?” Shado asked, smiling and gorgeous and there was hugging and Artemis running down the stairs and they were going to get found out and Felicity’s life was horrible, the actual worst. Because at the bottom of the stairs was her father, talking to ‘Grand Lance’ and they were chummy. They were getting along.

There was no punching and no prison and no- punching and HOLY SHIT Slade Wilson was in her (other self’s) house and he had a son about Artemis’ age and they were talking to Oliver and this was not her life and she didn’t know how to act and-

So many hugs.

“You have nice eyes. As in two,” Felicity blurted as Slade _hugged_ her. Without trying to kill her. The word vomit just came out. She blamed it on being tired, but-

 Apparently, Oliver had outdone himself this Thanksgiving and they had a table big enough for fourteen in the _dining room which was bigger than her old apartment_ and another _kid’s table_ that sat eight _._

This family wasn’t even unpacked, but the dining room was immaculate.  No one seemed to care that _Deathstroke_ was playing with their children or that-

A strong arm twirled her around from her awkward conversation with Shado and her husband straight into Tommy Merlyn’s embrace.

His eyes twinkled and his teeth gleamed and he dipped her and kissed her breathless. “Hey Co-Spouse. My husband was looking for you.”

“Tommy that joke is still not funny.” Laurel smirked. “Hey Bitch.” Laurel kissed both of her cheeks and pulled Tommy towards the table.

“MOMMY, BAD WORD!”

 _How many kids were there?_ _Who else was coming to this shindig? Moira Queen was alive!!_

“Hey Dorothy, saved you a seat up front,” Roy smirked, grabbing her a spot near the front where Ray and his wife Anna were sitting. Next to Kendra and Carter.  Oliver, wearing a “Kiss the Chef” apron had a cart full of plates and began handing them down. The whole thing was too unbelievable to be real.

All of her friends and family came to her house for Thanksgiving and everyone was happy and alive and her Oliver was missing (as was this Felicity) but she sat down and ate duck and got caught up on everyone’s lives and their hopes and dreams.

“Felicity- what are you thankful for?” Anna kicked her underneath the table and she sat up in her chair.

“I’m thankful that all of my friends and family are here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us,” she said finally, taking a sip from the very good, very expensive wine.

Her mother makes her help with distributing dessert and keeping five children under the age of ten out of the _ice cream_ _drawer_ in the freezer because it was, apparently, a two-woman job.

“So sorry we’re late!” The back door opened and Caitlin rushed in, pulling Barry in behind her. The two of them kissed, before Barry took her coat and tucked it into a closet. “Please, tell me there’s still food.”

“There is dessert. I’m good,” Barry grinned, sticking his hand into the bread pudding superhumanly fast, the entire dish gone in a snap. Thankfully her mother had another one in the fridge for everyone else. She loved Caitlin. She loved Barry, but the two of them together was a bit…odd… to say the least. But they were so happy looking-

“Felicity, could I borrow you a moment?”

The Oliver in the living room was wearing the same black t-shirt as he had when they arrived, but there was no little smidge of flour on his shoulder. This was her Oliver. Or another Oliver. Maybe in this timeline he was a _twin_. Oh god, she needed to find something to hide behind.

“Dude. You promised you weren’t going to hoard the bread pudding this year. The Merlyns may have provided the rum. That counts as ownership, right?”

The way Oliver’s neck craned towards her, brows furrowed, let her know that that is her Oliver.

“I don’t know, _Tommy,_ Moira and _Robert’s_ Booze Collection is pretty extensive.”

“This came from the summer home. Aka The Place Ollie and Thea and I spent shitfaced all summer. Every summer.”

“So that’s where you all almost got alcohol poisoning and got sent to rehab.” Felicity put one finger to her mouth and tapped it in what she hoped was a whimsical way, “How about you take this out there and try to keep Barry out of it?”

_“I heard that!”_

Oliver cornered her against the kitchen island and did his best to peek out of the doorway to get a glimpse of his family, before his voice dropped into a whisper, “Slade is here.”

“So is his _wife_ Shado,” Felicity hissed.  It was all so surreal.  “And their _son_ Grant. Where’s the other Felicity?”

“I went after the kids when they ditched Artemis and she cornered me coming out of the bathroom. She’s combing through their contacts for anyone who knows anything about this stupid ring. I was coming to tell you to act normal but it looks like you’ve got that covered.”

Felicity couldn’t take any more of his pouting face so she shoved a mouthful of leftover duck at him. He obediently started chewing, “There isn’t enough rosemary.”

His mouth was moving around the fork so it should have come out like a garbled mess. Instead, it was crystal clear, “He’s standing behind me isn’t he?”

“Yep.” Other!Oliver had a rolling cart full of dirty dishes with him and an interesting look on his face, “I mean two Felicitys and it’s not even my birthday. Wash and we’ll talk when everyone leaves. I’ll just say Barry did them.”

Spending almost an hour doing dishes was not Felicity’s idea of a good time, but she did them because they were kind of dependent of the hospitality of their other selves, but by the time she was done she was exhausted.

Felicity had not slept since she started traveling though time and by the time the guests had gone Other!Felicity was shooing them into a guest room and she was snoring before she hit the pillow.

 

***

 

2012 - (The First Time)

Starling City

The pile of hard drives on her desk had gone from three, when she was getting a tour, to 97 from when she sat down at her new desk.

“All of these hard drives need to wiped, erased, defragged and then reformatted before noon.”

Felicity had been at work for a total of two minutes before her boss turned into a total asshole. He dropped an extra one from his front pocket and waddled back to his office. There hadn’t been an intern at Queen Consolidated in over three years. And no one wanted to do the bitch work.

Which was her new job for the foreseeable future.

“Wiped and erased are the same thing, jerk face.” Felicity mumbled to herself, hooking up four hard drives to her computer to get to work. Doing one at a time was stupid and she wasn’t an idiot… Shitting on the intern was a common practice anywhere. Usually they weren’t so _douchey_ about it though-

Felicity was so busy cursing her new boss in her head, she didn’t hear the stranger walk up to her desk. “You’re not Mr. Garrison.”

“Of course, I’m not. I’d need a penis and three hundred pounds of self-righteous superiority complex.”

The voice on the other side of her cubicle was confused. The man also had coffee all over his crotch and his poor shirt was soaked, showing off his very very nice abs.

“Very very nice abs?” He laughed and she laughed and an hour later when he was putting his hard drive into her computer, she couldn’t stop staring at his hands. Most people didn’t really care about her job or what she did to save presentations, but he had a screwdriver in his hand. Oh god she made a hard drive into a computer joke in her head and she was feeling hot around the collar and she was going to melt of embarrassment and internal shame.

And his face was so close to hers while doing so-

“Mr. Queen?”

Felicity turned her head abruptly at the arrival of her boss and Oliver’s nose ended up in her ear.

“Yes?” The word got lost in her hair and she was in love.

She bought him a new shirt on her lunch break and he bought her dinner and breakfast.  And while things had never been smooth sailing or easy with men, something about her relationship with Oliver came naturally. They were not perfect by any means.  Felicity hated being in the spotlight for sleeping with her boss’ son.  She hated the walls that came up whenever his year on the island came up. She _hated_ the way she felt when his friend Slade came into town with his wife. Petty. Jealous. 

But then Oliver was bleeding in the back of Felicity’s car from being _shot,_ because he was _THE Vigilante_ and all of that other stuff didn’t seem important anymore.

They were broken up for the longest three weeks of her life after she found out, while she and Tommy wallowed in misery together, and then there was bank heist and she did what she did best. Thankfully, the bank had networked phones instead of an actual phone line and she could hack her way into his communication device from the server room.

“If you’re listening- Tommy and I are on the fourth floor.”

Five minutes later, Oliver was breaking his way into the building and seven minutes later she was in his arms. There was yelling, so much yelling, and crying, but she forgave him for being a lying liar. They got married, and they were happy.

And then William came into their lives and they were still happy.

Their friends got married, their friends had kids, and they had two more kids.  Felicity headed up IT for Oliver’s father.  When Robert retired, he left the company to her and maybe she panicked about that a lot, but Oliver had always preferred staying home with the kids and-

Felicity kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And when Artermis came home with a baby from god knows where, Felicity knew her lucky streak had finally ended.


	11. 2024 (The First Time)

Star City

 

It was dark in the bedroom.

That was the first thing Felicity thought.

The second, probably more important thought was that she was sleeping oddly, her comforter clenched in her hand definitely not soft and fake feather-like as she expected. In fact it was-

A penis.

Her hand was inside of his boxer briefs and if it was any indication Oliver was more than happy to have her there. Usually, when it was the two of them he was the one to be- handsy- but they hadn’t slept together in a long time. Certain responses were natural.

Like her legs being wrapped around his and her head on his chest.

Oliver shifted in his sleep, his hand covering hers, nudging her hand up and down.

“Fuck. Felicity.” Her name came out like an annoyed whine and with a growl Oliver yanked her hand out of his boxer briefs and he was on top of her, between her spread legs. Shifting to accommodate him, she leaned up- to blow air in his face.

Scandalized, Felicity smacked his shoulder. “You big faker!”

“Hey, you were the one sleep-groping me.” Oliver pointed out, lowering his pelvis down. Yep. She knew it.  “And it’s been a _long_ time.”

Felicity could hardly believe that particular lie. “What about that school teacher you were dating?”

“What about that lawyer _you_ were dating?”

Felicity debated her words carefully as to not inflate his ego or to sound self-deprecating. But she was semi-naked, with a horny Oliver and she was in an alternate timeline- why not.

“His penis wasn’t as good as yours.” Felicity mumbled, reaching back under the covers to nudge Oliver’s briefs down low enough. Unfortunately, her underwear was still on and she was getting impatient.

“Just do it.” Felicity rolled her eyes at him and his stupid smile and his stupid face.

“What happened to _never again, stop ruining my underwear?_ ”

Oliver took his time running his hands down her sides and in one (well-practiced) motion he ripped her underwear off and was inside of her before she could blink.

It had been too long and her orgasm came in waves- gentle calming waves that make her drowsy.

 “What really happened with the school teacher?” Felicity finally asked.

“She said she was always competing with someone I kept on a pedestal.” Oliver admitted, turning his body so they could cuddle. His chin pressed against her elbow and she melted against him. Things were getting better and she needed this. A break from life, time to relax.

It was just like their road trip except less booze and more babysitting.

Two weeks.

Two weeks they stayed at the mansion. Playing with ‘their’ kids, lovemaking, visiting with family. They were outstaying their welcome; she was sure of it. Every time they tried to find a way back, it didn’t work. There were a few legion members that the Justice League were aware of, but none of them were in this time.

And Clark didn’t know how the rings worked. He also didn’t want to risk leaving Lois and Clark Jr. to figure it out. The league was a little preoccupied with the red skies and Barry going missing. Oliver was keeping quiet about the red skies in their timeline.

Later that night, after tucking Artemis into bed, Oliver joined her in the guest room. “I don’t want to leave. That’s why the ring doesn’t work. Everything is perfect here. Slade comes over on weekends to watch _football_ – soccer-and Tommy wants to open another Verdant in Vegas and- we’re finally in a good place. Our timeline sucks. E _verything_ is wrong there!”

“Why?” Other!Oliver asked, drying his hands on a towel. The guest room was right next to the kid’s bathroom. “What made everything so horrible?”

“Everyone dies. Slade is a mass murder, your mother helped destroy most of the Glades with Malcolm Merlyn. Should I keep going?” Felicity explained.

“Malcolm has been dead for years. It’s like someone had manipulated all of these bad things to happen, everything good in my life was reversed to make yours-” The Other Oliver shuddered.   “Horrible. The only villain I have that powerful is Vandal Savage.”

Felicity liked to think that the Legends were taking care of him. Out of sight, out of mind, “We don’t have- direct confrontation with him, he’s more like that evil dictator you hear about in another country and our friends take care of him.”

“Who?”

“The Legends? Some of them came to Thanksgiving Dinner. Rip Hunter-”

“Who’s Rip Hunter?”

Oh. That’s new information. They should know Rip Hunter. And spoilers about his lineage aside, it was very odd that they didn’t know at least know _of_ him.

And then there was the possibility that Vandal Savage had gone back in time, and Felicity suspected he did, and ruined their lives.  That was a whole other can of worms. Her Oliver popped out of the kid’s room and kissed her forehead, one arm casually placed behind her back.

Even if they were living in the darkest timeline, Felicity had Oliver and that would have to be enough. This wasn’t their home. Yet.

Felicity looked between the two men, skeptical eyebrow raised, “How do you always know it’s me and not her?”

The other Oliver gives a look to her Oliver that meant nothing to the casual observer but everything to the two of them. Choosing his words carefully, he pursed his lips and confessed, “You’re very different.”

“What? She doesn’t wear her rings.” Felicity twirled her fingers in front of the older Oliver’s face. There was no way, with their hair up and trademark glasses- they were twins. Her mother’s religious moisturizing routine had been ingrained to them since birth.

“I have stared at this face, your face, through two child births, through fourteen fights, seven broken foyer tables and I lost count of how many the stitches. I know every freckle. That and her industrial piercing is different.”

To emphasize his explanation, Other!Oliver took a step forward and lovingly touched her ear. His hands felt rough against her ear lobe and he made some excuse about grocery shopping before turning down the opposite side of the hallway.  It was weird being here and while nice she was ready to go home. It wasn’t good for them or good for the kids. If she stayed any longer she wouldn’t want to leave.

“There’s a SPACESHIP OUTSIDE!” Cece shrieked from the hallway. Which was strange because she had just been read at least three stories and tucked in.

“How did you-”

Cece mimed opening a window and then jumping.  
  
“Cecelia Dearden Queen. Go back to bed now.”  Oliver pointed at her door. “And don’t come out.”

The front door blasted open, Rip armed to the teeth. “Thank fucking god. I’ve spent the past five years looking for you two and that stupid ring. In the last timeline everyone tried to kill me. And the one before that- England didn’t exist.”

Felicity was ready to leave. Digging the ring out of Oliver’s pocket, she handed it to Rip-

“Don’t touch the bloody-”

Then they were gone.

 

**

 

2052 (The First Time)

Star City

The time changed violently in waves of different colors, making Felicity dizzy. Rip did a running tackle towards her, knocking her over, which was only slightly cushioned by the bed she fell on top of.

Blinking rapidly at her surroundings, Felicity opened her eyes to see a younger version of herself looking up at her. The room looked like the same as the guest room she and Oliver were staying in, plus or minus some drawings on the wall.  And the new pink paint. The girl blinked back at her, before opening her mouth to inhale enough air to scream:

“GRAND OLIVER!!!!!”

Rip swept in to cover her mouth, but the girl wasn’t having any of it and bit his finger. “What the _fuck_ , Meghan.”

Felicity has no clue what’s happening or who Meghan was or why Rip seemed to be so familiar with her, never mind this Grand Oliver business, but the later rushed into the room and it was really unfair how good he looked old, crow’s feet and graying hair should not look _that_ good on anyone.

 Meghan scrambles to his side and buries her face in his sweater, but Oliver doesn’t say anything or move to attack them. “I forget sometimes, how much Meghan looks like you when you were younger.”

Meghan had blue streaks in her hair and despite her fake crying, she was looking around a lot for someone who was “traumatized”.  Something else was going on there, but she apparently shared her “Grand Oliver’s” penchant for planning silently. They looked nothing alike. Oliver was probably losing his vision in the future.

Finally, the girl spoke (specifically to Oliver), “Grand Felicity is _old._ I am not old. Neither is she.”

Rip’s body mimicked _Meghan’s_ body language, but he turned away from the two of them and focused on her.  It was a well-practiced move that reminded her of something a sibling would do.

“Grand Felicity is going to get the two of us killed. I am not losing my family or my brat little sister! I have worked too hard preserving this timeline,” Rip grumbled, digging under said brat’s (apparently) bed to retrieve a device that definitely looked like Curtis created it. Mainly because there was a giant T on the side and "Property of Curtis Holt" etched into the side.

Rip heads for the door, only to be stopped by Oliver’s still hugenormous arm. “Robert, you’re staying for dinner. Your Grand Felicity will want to see you. It’ll take that long to get a timeship from HQ. Sara and John are coming over and I don’t care how old you are, but I can still make you.”

Sara would explain everything, or at least she could try. But then Felicity quickly realized he meant Sara Diggle and not Sara Lance.

“Is _she_ here?” 

“No Artemis is on a League mission with Wally.”

“Is _Dickwad_ here?”

Oliver gestured to Meghan and her things in the guest room. Apparently that explained everything. “He’s on a work trip.”

That seemed to satisfy Rip and he disappeared into the hallway and assumedly towards the kitchen. Was crushing on your future husband a bad thing? Felicity wondered, taking his arm as he pointed out the various guest rooms and their inhabitants.

By the time they got to the elaborate staircase that overlooked the living room, her older self was home, not even looking up as the automatic front door opened for her and her guest. “-And I told that she-devil that anything I created with Uncle Cisco is still partially Queen Property.”

Sara Diggle was gorgeous. Like model-level gorgeous. Digg must use a bat to swat boys (girls?) away from her. 

No one says anything as the two of them sit down to dinner, which really says something about the state of her future life that doppelgangers are accepted without question at the table.  Sara Diggle talked animatedly about projects she was working on. Oliver spent most of his time trying to get Meghan to eat what Felicity assumed were vegetables and six of them ate as if it happened all the time.

The curious part of Felicity wanted to ask what happened to her Oliver, but would they even know?

Rip started checking his pockets for something, frantically and when he finally digs it out of his pocket it’s apparently too late. Leaning over to whisper in her ear, he put his Gideon unit back on his wrist and frowned. “Felicity the timeline is- changing.”

“Isn’t that what you guys do in the future? Change the past?”

Rip huffed in annoyance. “I’ve never participated in it changing like this. It shouldn’t be so obvious, it should be more subtle.”

Looking to their left, the potted plant on the floor turned from a fern into a cactus and then back again, the air around it, blurring. Felicity couldn’t think of a better comparison except for a really bad Photoshop job.

No one else at the table seemed to notice the chandelier changing or the guests at the table changing before all of the shaking stopped. Someone new was sitting at the table next to a slightly wrinkled Thea and they talked animatedly about their upcoming summer trip to Puerto Rico.

Felicity doesn’t know why it takes her so long to realize it was Cece, the woman so different from the little girl she had just been with.  Cece smiled and never shut up, but this woman was sullen- almost broody.

“So tell me, _Mom_ how did you met your time travelling friend?” Cece asked giving a very disturbing wink to her _nephew_.

Her _grandson_ doesn’t even look up from the- whatever they were eating for dinner, “Aunt Cecelia, that is not funny. Uncle Brin wouldn’t appreciate you flirting with me.”

Cece was on her feet, steak knife in hand. “You, whoever you are, are not allowed to speak his name.” Other Felicity had to put a hand on her chest to stop her from jumping Rip at the dinner table.

“Do none of you remember me?” Rip asked, looking down the table at their hosts.

“I’ve never seen you before in my life,” Older Felicity shrugged. “Have we met before?”

Rip grabbed Felicity’s arm and dragged her into the foyer, mid-bite of the meat-like product on their plate. Oliver cooked it, so it was delicious, and if they were going to continue hopping around through time she might as well be well-nourished.

“Remember when I talked about unintended consequences?”

“Yeah?” Felicity mumbled.

“You are with me right now. In your future, you would remember this moment. At minimum, time travelling or my face- something. If I am stranger to my own grandmother, something cataclysmic must happen to me to write me out of existence. If I disappear from the timeline, you’ll be stranded here or cease to exist all together right alongside me.”

Somehow _unintended consequences_ wasn’t as satisfying as saying, “We’re Fucked.”


	12. 2052 (The First Time)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep forgetting to post, so I'm just gonna post the rest now.

Felicity’s first thought was of her children.

Her second thought was of Oliver.

And all of her thoughts came a mile a minute, trying to figure out where in the compete history of her life, her children’s lives, that Vandal Savage, had killed someone. They weren’t even her children- she lived in Central City in a penthouse that views the bay. Time travelling shenanigans aside, if she ever did get back to her normal life she had to make some hard decisions about living arrangements and Oliver.  Or she would destroy this beautiful future as surely as Vandal Savage.

So to say her thoughts were cyclical would be an understatement.

Forming plans on the fly was apparently her forte now. “We need to stop Vandal from killing you as a baby.”  Because, really, that was the most pressing issue.

Rip wasn’t looking at her, though, he was staring at his family eating dinner. “I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I’ve always felt like an outsider in my own family, Ms. Smoak. I thought myself too weird or better than the lot of them.  When I went for my training I was so filled with enthusiasm and fullness. My life’s duty, my purpose. Then I came back and you had to deny all relation to me and I was set. Now I’ve spent years upon years trying to keep my family intact only to have one psychopath literally ruin my entire life.”

The hallway was dark and Felicity couldn’t make out his face but she put her chin on his shoulder. “Have you met my mother? I couldn’t wait to get out of her house and pretend she didn’t exist.”

Turning his head, Rip clearly looked upset. “I don’t believe that for a moment, Ms. Smoak. Grandonna and Grand Lance were just as vital to my upbringing as you and Oliver.”

 Felicity pulled out her phone and handed it to him.

“Good Lord! What happened to your face?”

“Goth phase. I must have destroyed all evidence.” Felicity smirked. “Now, how do we get this ring thing to work? I mean, I tried to hack it when we were in the other future that wasn’t so- far away. And Oliver is still stuck there- I mean, we need to get him back, obviously, for arm and bow reasons.”

“It takes great discipline to use a Legion Ring. Otherwise we’ll go gallivanting through time as evidenced by your little time traveling adventure. This is our plan. We pick up Oliver and then we will find my mother, save myself from extinction and then go back to our merry ways.”

The plan sounded so simple.

Except her genius grandson couldn’t get it to work. Grabbing the ring out of his hand, she grabbed his shoulders before they disappeared.

**

2460 (The First Time)  
Ramon Federación

 

Great discipline, my ass,” Felicity grumbled, dusting herself out and making sure Oliver was okay. They had been able to collect her Oliver without too much trouble.  But after that had been a shit storm.  They’d gone back in time to Gotham oddly- that was fun. Other Felicity was back in Star City with the kids and while she tried to get the damn ring to work again she got to mess with her older self.

Then they went a little bit further and found Artemis dying. Vandal Savage had captured her and- that didn’t go well for anyone. From there they got their current location- the Ramon Federación. Apparently Ria Ramon really did take over their part of the world. ¾ of North America were under Ciscotech control.

The three of them had jumped so many time she was a pro at the whole crippling nausea and vertigo that never ended.

Oliver looked a little green around the edges. Rip only had a brief knowledge of when he was born, which meant hopping around and around time, seemingly randomly, until they tracked down Artemis. Leading Oliver towards a bench she attempted to fix his hair and then gave up, it looked good messy anyway.

 “Why were you and Barry in 2016?” because this was Felicity’s first chance to ask.

“I forgot?”

Felicity smacked him in the chest.

“Barry came to me when the skies turned red and said he needed a favor. He had my mask and thought it was from the future- there was a weird note attached and by the time we figured out it was from the past Barry couldn’t take both of us back to our time. That’s when Kelly found me. She tracks temporal anomaly’s something about the speed force and that’s when I tuned out.”

That didn’t explain why Oliver was avoiding telling her about it.  Clearly his reasons for time traveling involved her.  He’d admitted as much before.  Felicity was about to press further when a gorgeous football player ran past them, a gaggle of drones following him.  Literal drones. Not people drones.

Oliver dusted his pants off, ready to intercept him, “That’s him.”

Pulling out her Gideon Watch from her pocket, Felicity remotely hacked into the drones to leave the man in pads alone. “Mr. Carter?”

“Artemis didn’t tell me she had a sister.”

None of her children looked like her, the Queen genes were too strong. “We don’t look anything alike,” Felicity argued mostly to herself.

Booster wiggled his finger in her face and then started counting on his fingers. “You talk the same, you’re the same height, and you both crinkle your noise when you’re confused. You coming to the game? Traffic was horrible so I decided to hoof it.”

Jon Carter was actually quite cordial on their walk until he mentioned that her “sister” was a crazy fox in bed and Oliver was moments away from breaking his hand and ruining his football career.

“Daddy, let him go!”

Felicity’s future daughter appears and it hits her, with a startling clarity, that Meghan is Artemis’ daughter. The crazy hair, the bright blue eyes- which meant that maybe her kids did take after her. That gave her a strange sense of pride.

Rip put a hand on Oliver’s forearm to stop him and he releases Booster Gold from his death grip.

Felicity half-expects Artemis to yell at Oliver, but Artemis immediately turns on her heel and smacks Booster on the chest, “What did you say to them?!”

Her arm goes up to smack him, a direct mirror of the action she just did to Oliver. Smirking, Felicity watched, amused, as Oliver tried to hold their daughter’s hand back.

 “Missy, if I can’t hurt him, you shouldn’t either,” Oliver gently chided. “Now after Jon finishes his football game, we need to have a little chat.”  It did strange things to Felicity’s insides, hearing _her_ Oliver be so paternal. This trip was affecting her in new and mysterious ways all the time.

Football in the future was nothing like Football in her time. The grass was digital, the refs were robots, and the other team was playing on a field in their own federation. The technology on the field was so precise and the applications in her time were-

“Felicity. Stop. You can’t take any of this with you.”

She expected the voice to be Rip’s, but it was Oliver’s.  Rip was too preoccupied watching Artemis root on Jon from the stands. He was enthralled. Entranced. From what Felicity had gleamed from Rip was that Artemis was a horrible mother and dragged him around from house to house as a child with her multiple ex-husbands.

This Artemis was asking Rip how knew her parents and if time travelling was exciting. When Jon’s team won the game, he met her at the stands and kissed her in front of _everyone_.

Rip was speechless. “She really loves him. My _father.”_

Felicity tried to comfort him, but honestly didn’t know how. He was a stranger to her, but she was also his grandmother and he needed her, “We Smoaks have big hearts.”

The crowd’s collective cheering turned into a collective gasp. Felicity froze as everything changed.    Vandal Savage had Artemis by the throat at the bottom of the stands. The player’s jerseys were different colors and the team originally won by seven points, not fourteen like the board said now.

“You’re his mother?” His gravelly villain voice seemed surprised.

“I’m no one’s mother. Yet.” Artemis choked, digging into her waistband for what Felicity could only assume was a weapon. It struck her has odd that throughout her time travelling adventure her words from earlier were mimicked in her own daughter’s life. Oliver didn’t have his bow and if Rip shot at Vandal in public it wouldn’t do any good.

“Oh, but you will be, child. I’ve done a lot of calculations to make sure he doesn’t live. Now, I can kill you quickly in public or-”

Jon had jumped the barricade and broke Vandal’s free arm, before wrenching the arm holding Artemis and dislocating the madman’s shoulder.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are but no one touches my girl.”

Jon didn’t let up there, stomping him in the face, Felicity swore she saw brains fly out of his skull. His bones were literally goo and when he was satisfied that Vandal wasn’t going to stand up to fight him, he went to Artemis’ side. Kendra and Carter didn’t kill him, so Felicity knew they were still at risk. They were too exposed here and they needed an exit plan.

Felicity had to literally help Rip hold Oliver back until the security force came and dragged Savage away. Sprinting down the stairs, Felicity fussed over her daughter while the paramedic droid applied some sort of spray to her neck.

The bruises faded into nothing, but this was still her baby, who had almost been choked to death in front of millions of people.

“We would like some privacy,” Jon said simply, the cameras flying way, even his teammates turning around to head towards the locker room. “Come on, Babe, let’s go home.”

Not sure if they should follow after them, Felicity turned to Oliver, but he was looking at someone in the stands.

“Fancy meeting you here.” Barry grinned. “I’ve been here for a week now, let’s blow this pop stand.”

Dressed in the weird reflective fabric that seemed to be popular in the future, he looked the part of someone from whatever year they’d ended up in. “I had to pawn my watch. Apparently, Cisco’s granddaughter cleaned house in the tech field before the Federation took over North America. Apple products go for millions on the black market. Do you wanna say goodbye to your friend before we leave?”

Rip pinched the bridge of his nose and Felicity couldn’t tell if he was tired or worried. Maybe he was both, “Mr. Allen, please tell me you are joking.”

“Nope. And I joke a lot.”

Pulling Barry over to the sidelines, Felicity did her best to explain the time traveling situation without driving her friend crazy. Maybe she was crazy, but she needed to save _Rip Hunter_ from his own demise.

Barry didn’t seem impressed. “You know, Felicity, this would make a lot more sense if I knew who _Rip Hunter_ was.”

Felicity tried to stop her forehead from crinkling to no avail. “Wait- was that supposed to be your impression of me?”

“Yes. It’s spot on.”

Felicity agreed to disagree with him on this one. Looking towards where Rip and Oliver were having a heated conversation, she motioned towards her wrist. “Are we leaving or staying?”

Oliver handed the ring to Rip and jogged over. “We’re leaving. Rip apparently has a-”

The ground underneath her feet started to shake and while that was weird enough, the world was spinning again. Barry disappeared, followed by the stadium and she reached for Oliver’s hand but he was already gone.

The trees, the grass, Felicity’s whole body felt like it was being rearranged. Panicked, she tried to focus on something, _anything_ that was still there with her, but all that was left was a note fluttering to the ground, the note Barry received in her timeline.

And as it too disappeared, Felicity tried to scream but couldn’t. She was already gone.

 

 


	13. The Vanishing Point  (Undisclosed Time)

The Vanishing Point

Undisclosed Time

 

_“Mr. Diggle I was barely able to resuscitate her. She’s still not Time Stable.”_

Slowly prying one eye open, Felicity moaned for Gideon to lower her volume. She expected to see familiar faces: Kendra. Ray. Instead she saw one John Diggle Jr and one _very_ pregnant Artemis Dearden Queen. How Thea convinced her to give both her nieces her middle name was another mystery she planned on solving.

“Gideon tell Captain Lance that it’s safe to depart.” John wiped the stray tears from his face and left her alone with her daughter. “Lieutenant Snart and I have a training session, but I’ll be back, Auntie.”

Artemis didn’t look good by any means, pale and- oh god, she was going to give birth.

“Felicity Smoak, It’s a pleasure.” Artemis chuckled. “There’s a madman after my son and his father pulled every favor he could to keep me safe.”

Artemis breathing became labored and she clutched her hugely swollen abdomen Felicity went to hold her hand while the ship took off, realizing what was about to happen and trying not to panic.

“I’ve never done this,” Felicity confessed. She had never given birth, been around someone who gave birth- she preferred the ‘bring a gift to the hospital’ room approach.

“Gideon assures me that the pushing is a lot easier with less gravity.” The other woman chuckled between gasps of pain.

Artemis screamed and twenty very awkward, beautiful minutes later, Robert Thomas Queen was born. Felicity thought the younger woman would want to sleep or something, but while Sara bundled the baby up, Gideon, apparently, took care of any pain, Artemis had not removed her hand the whole time. Some of Felicity’s fingers might be broken, but if her daughter kept the baby, the baby she loved by the man she loved, the whole world was at the whims of Vandal Savage.

She wasn’t sure what Rip’s master plan was. He deserved to have his family. If Vandal killed Artemis now, there would just be pain and misery throughout time. Artemis was the key. When Savage comes for her, she sets him on the path. Time wasn’t changing in the ways they wanted and the only solution they had left was to remove the path completely.

The plan is out of her mouth before Felicity can stop herself, “It’s a long story but I’ve been time traveling a lot and apparently it’s all led me here. To now. Robbie is in very real danger and the world needs him.”

Artemis dropped Felicity’s hand and growled in a very Oliver way, “No.”

Felicity did her best to fight the frown crossing her features. “I don’t want you to give up the baby, but you _need_ to give up the baby. I’m so sorry, Hun, but Vandal will come and hurt him. He is very patient and he is _ruthless_. I don’t know how much time I have left before time implodes on me, but I am begging you, send him back. He’s disappearing from the timeline and so am-”

 

**

Unknown Location

 June 2nd 2017 (The Last Time)

Closing her eyes, Felicity prayed for a quick- whatever it was to happen to her. She figured there’d be a sharp stab of pain or static electricity throughout her whole body. But- nothing. She’d time traveled enough in the past few months that she was used to the pulling sensation and the vertigo.

Nada.

Opening one eye, she looked over at the person tapping her on the shoulder, “What are you doing, Felicity? This is the part where you walk.”

“Captain Lance? What are you doing here?”

He dressed very nicely. He cleaned up nice. Very nice. Too nice. “You asked me to walk you down the aisle. And I asked you to call me Quentin.”

Felicity opened her other eye and looked down. White dress. Check. Hair braided, check. Father-esque figure to walk her down the aisle, check. Flowers, not roses, not too orange, check. Super long veil pulling on her hair, check.

“Oh shit.”

“If you want to run, I don’t blame you. Just let me tell your mother you finally came to your senses about Queen. I got a uni in the back with the engine.”

The music, which she didn’t notice before, started up again. Not “here comes the bride” but a song that always reminded her of Oliver, sad sounding but beautiful all the same. Taking a deep breath, Felicity grabbed Lance-Quentin’s arm, “Let’s do this.”

She didn’t recognize two of her many ladies in waiting, but she did recognize the bright orange woman sitting near the aisle, leaning next to the brooding man who obviously did not want to be there. And the slew of reporters in the back of the church.

Her mother was crying.  Oliver was crying. Hell, she was crying.

And Dig, Dig was bawling.

The little church had been done up just right. Barry and Iris were there. Sara was there. Thea was her Maid of Honor and there was a Rabbi to perform the ceremony.

Oliver left the altar to meet her halfway and smiled, “I thought you were going to run off on me.”

“Not this time.” Felicity smiled back. Still, she wondered where Rip had gone to and if he had finished getting his “affairs” in order. She was getting a little hazy on the details, but she’d helped him when she was younger to design the Waverider units and the time masters were valuable allies to Queen Technologies.

And it was her wedding day, Felicity should really have a story to tell their kids. Especially if one was coming sooner than planned. She just hoped that whatever was happening to the timeline had stopped and that- wherever he was, Rip Hunter was safe from Vandal Savage.

Looking wistfully down at her stomach she took her cue when the rabbi said _you may now kiss the bride_.


	14. 2038 (The Last Time)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Mentions of torture in the epilogue.

Oliver lifted his head from the pillow, trying to determine why he was awake. The house was silent, there were no smoke alarms, or kids screaming, Felicity was snoring softly at his side. Something had definitely woken him up, though, and he was a man who trusted his instincts. Kissing his wife’s temple, he headed for Artemis’ room, stopping abruptly at the scene before him.

Artemis, his daughter, his _youngest_ daughter was standing in the hallway talking to someone.

He recognized the man immediately: _Rip Hunter_.

On his top ten list of people he did not want to see, Rip was one of them. Slade and Malcolm were also on that list, but he stashed weapons in the mansion for this very reason.

“Artemis, I am tasking you with something very important. I would not be here if it wasn’t. You must take this child to your parents. Protect him as if he were your own.”

Putting the knife back under the hall table, Rip looked up at him with a strange sense of recognition, before handing the toddler to his daughter. “Mr. Queen. I suppose congratulations are in order.”

Rip turned the corner and disappeared- and old League of Assassins trick that Sara must have taught him.

The toddler, all red hair and smiles, squirmed out of his daughter’s arms and wobbled over to him to be held. All of his children looked like his mother. But this child had Felicity’s eyes- that was his first thought. The second was that they were not equipped to take care of a baby.

“Daddy? I have soccer practice and archery after school. Johnny and I have date on Saturday and the Justice League just let me in on a trial basis and I don’t even know who the kid’s dad is let alone who his mother is- I am not a live-in babysitter just because I am the youngest!”

Holding the boy close, Oliver put his free arm around his daughter. “Honey, we will figure this out. And it’s hilarious that you think I won’t kill Johnny just because he’s my best friend’s son. He’s 21. Too old for you.”

His bedroom door opened, a very tired looking Felicity Smoak Queen emerging in her favorite Giraffe robe.

“You too are so quiet normally and Momma hasn’t had her coffee yet,” Felicity grumbled, her blonde hair a tangled mess on top of her head. She took the toddler out of Oliver’s arms and sniffed his head before sniffing his butt.

“Come on Robbie, let’s go get some breakfast and then Grand Felicity is going to hack the Social Security Administration and get you into preschool. Don’t mind your sister, I remember a time when her sister Cecelia said the same thing, and you’ll fit in just fine here.”

“Robbie?” Artemis questioned, putting one hand on her hip. Sometimes, she looked so much like Thea at that age it made Oliver’s heart burst with pride. But sometimes it _annoyed the shit_ out of him.

“Robert Thomas Queen. That was going to be your name if you were a boy. You, young lady, have school and I’ll take this one to work with me in the meantime. But first, coffee.”

Felicity carried Robbie downstairs and left Oliver standing in the hallway staring at his daughter. “Did that just happen?”

Artemis looked around the hallway equally confused. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen Mom so caz about anything. And what’s up with the _Grand Felicity_ thing?”

Felicity was the best mother anyone could ask for and as Oliver went downstairs to the kitchen she was dancing around the kitchen, pouring cereal into several bowls. She was also, unfortunately, the world’s worst cook.

“Robbie, it’s just cereal. I can’t burn cereal.”

The toddler shook his head and pushed the bowl back towards her.

“PANCAKES.” Robbie held up one chubby hand towards the stove and then another towards his _Grand Oliver_.

Chuckling, Oliver kissed the top of his head and went for his mixing bowls. “He’s definitely one of ours, Felicity.”

Grabbing the flour, he turned to see Felicity staring into the open refrigerator, tears running down her cheeks.

“Felicity? Honey, why are you crying?” Oliver put his arms around, her letting her tears soak into his shirt.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I’m just- really happy.”

Not sure if he believed her, he kissed the top of her head and headed for the stove once he got the eggs from his wife. She was beaming at this _Robbie_ with no explanation or-

Felicity would tell him when she was ready.  She always did.  Oliver would just have to be patient.

**

EPILOGUE 

 

Undisclosed Time, Undisclosed Place  
The First Time

Felicity put the flowers on the grave and didn’t even bother turning around when she heard someone approach. “Did you get it?”

Her daughter was dead. She had left on a routine mission and her broken body had been returned to them in pieces. Felicity couldn’t even stomach hearing the autopsy report. Oliver had been listening to it on a loop since they’d gotten the first package with her brightly colored toes.

She had been tortured for weeks. _Multiple contusions, bruising consistent with being tied up for long periods of time-_

When Artemis came home with Robbie as a teenager, she knew something strange was going on. But life was a busy and she’d let it go. Robbie was a little angel. He was an adjustment and she’d adjusted to him. Now he was a Time Master- she couldn’t be more proud.

Artemis had been acting weird for weeks and she’d dismissed it as nothing. She hadn’t checked in from her latest mission and when Felicity had finally gotten up the courage to check her computer, she’d apparently been going to the future to visit with some mysterious boyfriend.

Her last video entry had been short, too short for her liking. Her baby smiling at Gideon’s camera. _“I love him. I think he might be Robbie’s father.”_

And how her baby was dead. Vandal Savage had apparently gotten what he needed from her and now her whole family was at risk. Her friends- she was not losing anyone else to that madman.

“I don’t understand how a Green Arrow Mask from the past is going to help anything.”

Felicity turned around to look at her godson, the note she had prewritten already clutched her in hand. “Johnny, you need to take this mask, this note to Barry Allen. Maybe around 2024, he was better at time travel then. He’ll get Oliver and he’ll make this right.”

“What if Uncle Ollie isn’t the Green Arrow? What if he’s with Aunt Laurel? There are too many unknown variables for this plan to work. What if my Mom and Dad aren’t together? I can’t just show up on the Waverider if Aunt Sara doesn’t recognize me.”

The plan would work. It had to work.

“There’s no universe where Oliver wouldn’t help me.” Felicity said her words with a surprising tone of finality. She had been with Oliver for most of her life. Vandal couldn’t change that unless they were his first stop. She was still breathing; Oliver was still breathing. That meant they could still fix things. They had time- at least one last time to get things right.

All Johnny had to do was show up, show the note to Rip Hunter and everything would be fine. Then he would come back to this exact moment to let her know it had worked.

Kissing both of his cheeks, she wished him luck before he ran towards the drop ship.

It disappeared and she waited.

And waited.

Three weeks later when one Kelly Benson shows up at her doorstep with Rakjen-1Z and a story about a time travelling Felicity Smoak, she knows something most have gone terribly wrong. The woman asked for tea, and her secure uplink to Legion of Super Heroes.

Felicity obliged the woman’s request and placed Rakjen-1Z into stasis in the meantime.

Oliver came into her office and sat down at Felicity’s side, “Who’s this?”

Kelly turned away from the terminal she was furiously typing at and frowned, “You don’t remember meeting me? Neither of you?”

“Nope.” Felicity shrugged. If she had a dollar every time a strange person showed up at her doorstep asking for help, she’d be an even richer woman.

“Well I guess I’m not getting my Legion ring back any time soon. Good thing Iris West-Allen convinced her future husband to drop me off.”

Iris West-Allen? Felicity looked the picture of Caitlin and Barry at their 35th anniversary party that was behind Kelly on the mantle and watched, transfixed as it changed to Barry and Iris. Which made no sense because Barry and Caitlin had been together longer than she and Oliver.

Something was changing in the past. Maybe multiple some things.

It could be Vandal, but she liked to believe it was Johnny. Changing was good. Change meant that her daughter had a fighting chance.

 

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone else predict that it was Felicity who started all of this?? That's it! That's the end. It's been an incredible ride. Thank you to everyone who read this story. I don't write for comments or attention, writing is something I do for fun. If you like this story tell your friends. It's so confusing because I love things that take two or three views to really understand.
> 
> <3

**Author's Note:**

> First of All:
> 
> Big thank you to [Emmilyne](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmilyne/pseuds/Emmilyne). If not for her insight/awesomeness this never would have gotten finished. She is the best beta/writing partner/etc someone could ever ask for.
> 
> Second of All:
> 
> Thank you to Clarissa for the great gif!
> 
> i do not own arrow/legends/the flash and make no profit from this work of fiction.


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